Alert archive / South Carolina / Mesoscale Discussions in 2009

Mesoscale Discussion 538

April 20, 2009Chatham County, Georgia; 6 counties in North Carolina; 13 counties in South Carolina

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Apr 20, 2009, 2:52 PM EDT for Chatham County, Georgia; 6 counties in North Carolina; 13 counties in South Carolina. It was in force for 83 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Apr 20, 2009, 2:52 PM EDT (18:52 UTC)
Expired: Apr 20, 2009, 4:15 PM EDT
In force: 83 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

Counties Chatham County, GA, Bladen County, NC, Brunswick County, NC, Columbus County, NC, Duplin County, NC, New Hanover County, NC, Pender County, NC, Beaufort County, SC, Berkeley County, SC, Charleston County, SC, Clarendon County, SC, Colleton County, SC, Dorchester County, SC, Florence County, SC, Georgetown County, SC, Hampton County, SC, Horry County, SC, Jasper County, SC, Marion County, SC, Williamsburg County, SC

The radar

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 116 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:52 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.

The watches that followed

Watches SPC issued over any of the same counties within four hours of this discussion.

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 179Apr 20, 3:15 PM EDT

The nearest sounding before it

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 12:00Z, 6.9 hours before the alert went out and 21 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: 56 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -112 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 969 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 43 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 121 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 145 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.9

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

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SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 19, 8:51 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barrow, Bartow, Butts, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga and 42 more	6 hr
Apr 19, 11:21 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barrow, Bartow, Butts, Carroll, Chattooga, Cherokee and 35 more	84 min
Apr 20, 12:20 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Elbert, Franklin, Greene, Hart, Lincoln, McDuffie and 4 more	55 min
Apr 20, 12:42 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Baldwin, Banks, Clarke, Columbia, Elbert, Franklin and 19 more	5 hr
Apr 20, 1:22 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barrow, Bibb, Butts, Chattahoochee, Clayton, Coweta and 26 more	53 min
Apr 20, 3:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Bryan, Chatham, Effingham, Liberty, Long, McIntosh	6 hr
Apr 20, 4:55 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bryan, Bulloch, Chatham, Effingham, Evans, Liberty and 1 more	95 min
Apr 20, 7:36 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Chatham	84 min
Apr 20, 12:22 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Craven, Edgecombe and 19 more	83 min
Apr 20, 2:09 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Caswell, Durham, Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville and 11 more	2 hr
Apr 20, 2:50 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Alamance, Bertie, Camden, Caswell, Chatham, Chowan and 18 more	7 hr
Apr 20, 4:57 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Camden, Caswell, Chatham, Chowan, Durham and 13 more	93 min
Apr 20, 7:15 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Gates, Halifax, Hertford, Northampton, Warren	90 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in South Carolina, 2009 Mesoscale Discussions in North Carolina, 2009 Mesoscale Discussions in Georgia, 2009 Every mesoscale discussion in 2009

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.