Alert archive / Virginia / Tornado Watches in 2010

Tornado Watch 729

October 26, 20106 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Oct 26, 2010, 7:19 PM EDT for 6 states. It was in force for 12 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Oct 26, 2010, 7:19 PM EDT (23:19 UTC)
Expired: Oct 27, 2010, 7:39 AM EDT
In force: 12 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 153 counties

Elbert County, GA, Franklin County, GA, Habersham County, GA, Hart County, GA, Rabun County, GA, Stephens County, GA, Allegany County, MD, Carroll County, MD, Charles County, MD, Frederick County, MD, Howard County, MD, Montgomery County, MD, Prince George's County, MD, Washington County, MD, Alamance County, NC, Alexander County, NC, Alleghany County, NC, Ashe County, NC, Avery County, NC, Buncombe County, NC, Burke County, NC, Cabarrus County, NC, Caldwell County, NC, Caswell County, NC, Catawba County, NC, Cleveland County, NC, Davidson County, NC, Davie County, NC, Forsyth County, NC, Gaston County, NC, Graham County, NC, Guilford County, NC, Haywood County, NC, Henderson County, NC, Iredell County, NC, Jackson County, NC, Lincoln County, NC, Macon County, NC, Madison County, NC, McDowell County, NC, Mecklenburg County, NC, Mitchell County, NC, Person County, NC, Polk County, NC, Randolph County, NC, Rockingham County, NC, Rowan County, NC, Rutherford County, NC, Stanly County, NC, Stokes County, NC, Surry County, NC, Swain County, NC, Transylvania County, NC, Union County, NC, Watauga County, NC, Wilkes County, NC, Yadkin County, NC, Yancey County, NC, Abbeville County, SC, Anderson County, SC, Cherokee County, SC, Chester County, SC, Greenville County, SC, Greenwood County, SC, Laurens County, SC, Oconee County, SC, Pickens County, SC, Spartanburg County, SC, Union County, SC, York County, SC, Albemarle County, VA, Alleghany County, VA, Amherst County, VA, Appomattox County, VA, Arlington County, VA, Augusta County, VA, Bath County, VA, Bedford County, VA, Bland County, VA, Botetourt County, VA, Buckingham County, VA, Campbell County, VA, Carroll County, VA, Charlotte County, VA, City of Alexandria, VA, City of Buena Vista, VA, City of Charlottesville, VA, City of Covington, VA, City of Danville, VA, City of Fairfax, VA, City of Falls Church, VA, City of Fredericksburg, VA, City of Galax, VA, City of Harrisonburg, VA, City of Lexington, VA, City of Lynchburg, VA, City of Manassas, VA, City of Manassas Park, VA, City of Martinsville, VA, City of Radford, VA, City of Roanoke, VA, City of Salem, VA, City of Staunton, VA, City of Waynesboro, VA, City of Winchester, VA, Clarke County, VA, Craig County, VA, Culpeper County, VA, Fairfax County, VA, Fauquier County, VA, Floyd County, VA, Franklin County, VA, Frederick County, VA, Giles County, VA, Grayson County, VA, Greene County, VA, Halifax County, VA, Henry County, VA, Highland County, VA, King George County, VA, Loudoun County, VA, Madison County, VA, Montgomery County, VA, Nelson County, VA, Orange County, VA, Page County, VA, Patrick County, VA, Pittsylvania County, VA, Prince William County, VA, Pulaski County, VA, Rappahannock County, VA, Roanoke County, VA, Rockbridge County, VA, Rockingham County, VA, Shenandoah County, VA, Smyth County, VA, Spotsylvania County, VA, Stafford County, VA, Tazewell County, VA, Warren County, VA, Wythe County, VA, Berkeley County, WV, Grant County, WV, Greenbrier County, WV, Hampshire County, WV, Hardy County, WV, Jefferson County, WV, Mercer County, WV, Mineral County, WV, Monroe County, WV, Morgan County, WV, Pendleton County, WV, Summers County, WV

The radar

The Roanoke radar (KFCX), 69 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:20 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: 40%
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: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 26, 7:31 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Polk, Rutherford	41 min
Oct 26, 7:35 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Alexander, Catawba, Iredell	40 min
Oct 26, 8:07 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Cleveland, Polk, Rutherford	38 min
Oct 26, 8:46 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Burke, Catawba, Cleveland, Lincoln	59 min
Oct 26, 9:00 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Burke, Catawba, Cleveland, Lincoln	45 min
Oct 26, 9:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Anderson, Pickens	38 min
Oct 26, 9:17 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Burke, Cleveland, Rutherford	43 min
Oct 26, 9:28 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Alexander, Catawba, Davie, Iredell	34 min
Oct 26, 9:51 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Catawba, Lincoln	54 min
Oct 26, 10:33 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Catawba, Iredell	42 min
Oct 26, 10:59 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Davie, Iredell, Rowan	46 min
Oct 26, 11:21 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Rockingham, Stokes	54 min
Oct 26, 11:27 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	RNK	Rockingham, Stokes	48 min
Oct 26, 11:30 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Catawba, Iredell, Lincoln, Rowan	45 min
Oct 26, 11:40 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	RAH	Forsyth	50 min
Oct 27, 12:16 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	RNK	Henry, Pittsylvania, City of Danville	44 min
Oct 27, 2:34 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	RAH	Forsyth	26 min
Oct 27, 2:42 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Charlotte, Halifax	48 min
Oct 27, 2:44 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	RNK	Rockingham, Stokes	46 min
Oct 27, 2:49 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	RNK	Charlotte, Halifax	26 min
Oct 27, 3:21 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Forsyth	3 hr
Oct 27, 3:31 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Rockingham, Stokes	44 min
Oct 27, 4:56 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RNK	Rockingham, Stokes	4 hr

Discussions around it

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

The nearest sounding before it

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), launched 12:00Z, 11.3 hours before the alert went out and 166 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: 126 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -27 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 452 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 200 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 200 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 26, 12:57 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Dade	93 min
Oct 26, 2:16 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Banks, Bartow, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee and 30 more	8 hr
Oct 26, 4:51 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bartow, Carroll, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta and 7 more	54 min
Oct 26, 7:32 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga and 28 more	58 min
Oct 26, 1:09 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Garrett	66 min
Oct 26, 1:36 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Garrett	7 hr
Oct 26, 5:45 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Garrett	90 min
Oct 26, 6:21 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Rockingham, Stokes	54 min
Oct 26, 4:38 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Benton, Carroll, Chester, Crockett, Decatur, Dyer and 19 more	2 hr
Oct 26, 5:05 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Benton, Carroll, Chester, Crockett, Decatur, Dyer and 20 more	8 hr
Oct 26, 7:00 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bedford, Benton, Cannon, Carroll, Cheatham, Chester and 50 more	2 hr
Oct 26, 9:54 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bedford, Cannon, Cheatham, Coffee, Davidson, DeKalb and 23 more	66 min
Oct 26, 10:27 AM EDT	Tornado Watch PDS	SPC	Bedford, Benton, Bledsoe, Cannon, Cheatham, Clay and 41 more	11 hr
Oct 26, 4:44 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Franklin	61 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Virginia, 2010 Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 2010 Tornado Watches in South Carolina, 2010 Every tornado watch in 2010

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.