Alert archive / Virginia / Tornado Watches in 2008

Tornado Watch 242

April 28, 200821 counties in North Carolina; 27 counties in Virginia

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Apr 28, 2008, 3:16 PM EDT for 21 counties in North Carolina; 27 counties in Virginia. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Apr 28, 2008, 3:16 PM EDT (19:16 UTC)
Expired: Apr 28, 2008, 8:00 PM EDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 48 counties

Beaufort County, NC, Bertie County, NC, Camden County, NC, Chowan County, NC, Currituck County, NC, Dare County, NC, Edgecombe County, NC, Gates County, NC, Greene County, NC, Halifax County, NC, Hertford County, NC, Hyde County, NC, Martin County, NC, Nash County, NC, Northampton County, NC, Pasquotank County, NC, Perquimans County, NC, Pitt County, NC, Tyrrell County, NC, Washington County, NC, Wilson County, NC, Charles City County, VA, City of Chesapeake, VA, City of Emporia, VA, City of Franklin, VA, City of Hampton, VA, City of Hopewell, VA, City of Newport News, VA, City of Norfolk, VA, City of Poquoson, VA, City of Portsmouth, VA, City of Suffolk, VA, City of Virginia Beach, VA, City of Williamsburg, VA, Gloucester County, VA, Greensville County, VA, Isle of Wight County, VA, James City County, VA, King and Queen County, VA, King William County, VA, Mathews County, VA, Middlesex County, VA, New Kent County, VA, Prince George County, VA, Southampton County, VA, Surry County, VA, Sussex County, VA, York County, VA

The radar

The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 54 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:18 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 50%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 30%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 30%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 5%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 5%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 40%

Warnings issued inside it

18 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 28, 3:16 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	AKQ	Brunswick, Greensville	4 hr
Apr 28, 3:21 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Martin	24 min
Apr 28, 3:29 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Sussex	31 min
Apr 28, 3:34 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Northampton	41 min
Apr 28, 3:46 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Charles City, Chesterfield, Henrico, Prince George, City of Colonial Heights, City of Hopewell and 1 more	29 min
Apr 28, 3:50 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Isle of Wight, City of Suffolk	25 min
Apr 28, 4:00 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Surry, Sussex	30 min
Apr 28, 4:05 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Bertie, Hertford	25 min
Apr 28, 4:13 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Charles City, James City, Prince George	32 min
Apr 28, 4:17 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Isle of Wight, City of Chesapeake, City of Hampton, City of Newport News, City of Norfolk, City of Portsmouth and 1 more	28 min
Apr 28, 4:17 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	James City, Surry	13 min
Apr 28, 4:35 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Isle of Wight, City of Suffolk	40 min
Apr 28, 4:39 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Gloucester, James City, King and Queen, York, City of Williamsburg	36 min
Apr 28, 4:41 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Gloucester, Mathews, Middlesex	19 min
Apr 28, 4:42 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Chowan, Gates, Perquimans	33 min
Apr 28, 4:42 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Beaufort	48 min
Apr 28, 4:44 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Isle of Wight, City of Suffolk	17 min
Apr 28, 5:21 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Hyde	44 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Wallops Is Stn, VA (KWAL), launched 12:00Z, 7.3 hours before the alert went out and 176 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 14 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -59 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 544 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 151 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 156 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 28, 12:50 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Bertie, Caswell, Chatham, Chowan, Durham and 19 more	55 min
Apr 28, 4:28 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Craven, Currituck and 18 more	92 min
Apr 28, 6:45 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare and 10 more	60 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Virginia, 2008 Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 2008 Every tornado watch in 2008

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.