Alert archive / North Carolina / Tornado Watches in 2008
Tornado Watch 953
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Dec 11, 2008, 11:43 AM EST for 31 counties in North Carolina. It was in force for 9 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Dec 11, 2008, 11:43 AM EST (16:43 UTC)
- Expired
- Dec 11, 2008, 9:00 PM EST
- In force
- 9 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 1 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 31 counties
Beaufort County, NC, Bertie County, NC, Camden County, NC, Carteret County, NC, Chowan County, NC, Craven County, NC, Currituck County, NC, Dare County, NC, Duplin County, NC, Edgecombe County, NC, Franklin County, NC, Gates County, NC, Granville County, NC, Greene County, NC, Halifax County, NC, Hertford County, NC, Hyde County, NC, Jones County, NC, Lenoir County, NC, Martin County, NC, Nash County, NC, Northampton County, NC, Onslow County, NC, Pamlico County, NC, Pasquotank County, NC, Perquimans County, NC, Pitt County, NC, Tyrrell County, NC, Vance County, NC, Warren County, NC, Washington County, NC
The radar
The Morehead City radar (KMHX), 116 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 16:45 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
- 70%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 40%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 50%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 20%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 10%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 5%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 90%
Warnings issued inside it
4 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 11, 2:43 PM EST | Tornado Warning | AKQ | Camden, Currituck, Pasquotank | 32 min |
| Dec 11, 3:45 PM EST | Tornado Warning | MHX | Carteret | 45 min |
| Dec 11, 4:17 PM EST | Tornado Warning | MHX | Carteret, Craven, Pamlico | 28 min |
| Dec 11, 4:49 PM EST | Tornado Warning | RAH | Franklin, Warren | 26 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
Newport, NC (KMHX), launched 12:00Z, 4.7 hours before the alert went out and 116 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1360 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 440 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 169 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 194 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.1
- Supercell composite
- 8.0
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 11, 10:01 AM EST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Alamance, Alexander, Anson, Avery, Bladen, Brunswick and 56 more | 119 min |
| Dec 11, 11:00 AM EST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Anson, Bladen, Brunswick, Cabarrus, Chatham, Columbus and 23 more | 8 hr |
| Dec 11, 11:30 AM EST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Beaufort, Bertie, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Dare and 10 more | 30 min |
| Dec 11, 1:28 PM EST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Anson, Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Camden and 45 more | 92 min |
| Dec 11, 3:17 PM EST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Currituck | 6 hr |
| Dec 11, 3:57 PM EST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Cabarrus, Camden and 49 more | 2 hr |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 2008Every 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.