Alert archive / North Carolina / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2011

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 97

April 4, 20116 counties in Georgia; 28 counties in North Carolina; 12 counties in South Carolina

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at Apr 4, 2011, 9:45 PM EDT for 6 counties in Georgia; 28 counties in North Carolina; 12 counties in South Carolina. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Apr 4, 2011, 9:45 PM EDT (01:45 UTC)
Expired: Apr 5, 2011, 3:00 AM EDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 46 counties

Elbert County, GA, Franklin County, GA, Habersham County, GA, Hart County, GA, Rabun County, GA, Stephens County, GA, Alexander County, NC, Avery County, NC, Buncombe County, NC, Burke County, NC, Cabarrus County, NC, Caldwell County, NC, Catawba County, NC, Cleveland County, NC, Davie County, NC, Gaston County, NC, Graham 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, Polk County, NC, Rowan County, NC, Rutherford County, NC, Swain County, NC, Transylvania County, NC, Union 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

The radar

The Greer radar (KGSP), 42 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:49 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: 20%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 5%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 40%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 30%
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: 70%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 4, 9:50 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Graham, Swain	55 min
Apr 4, 10:14 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Habersham, Rabun	61 min
Apr 4, 10:42 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Buncombe, Haywood, Madison, Swain	63 min
Apr 4, 11:06 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Habersham, Rabun	54 min
Apr 4, 11:25 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, McDowell, Madison and 2 more	65 min
Apr 4, 11:28 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Franklin, Habersham, Stephens	62 min
Apr 4, 11:43 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Henderson, McDowell, Polk and 1 more	62 min
Apr 4, 11:50 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Franklin, Hart	55 min
Apr 4, 11:52 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Buncombe, Henderson, McDowell, Rutherford	38 min
Apr 4, 11:59 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Polk	46 min
Apr 5, 12:20 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Anderson, Greenville, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg	55 min
Apr 5, 12:22 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba	53 min
Apr 5, 12:28 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Burke, Cleveland, Rutherford	32 min
Apr 5, 12:29 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Elbert, Hart	61 min
Apr 5, 12:42 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Abbeville, Anderson, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, Spartanburg and 1 more	63 min
Apr 5, 12:46 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Cleveland, Gaston, Polk, Rutherford	59 min
Apr 5, 12:57 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Cherokee, Spartanburg, York	63 min
Apr 5, 1:12 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Burke, Catawba, Cleveland, Iredell, Lincoln	63 min
Apr 5, 1:14 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Alexander, Davie, Iredell	61 min
Apr 5, 1:18 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Elbert	57 min
Apr 5, 1:21 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Cleveland, Gaston, Lincoln, Mecklenburg	54 min
Apr 5, 1:29 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Catawba, Lincoln	27 min
Apr 5, 1:35 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Chester, Union	55 min
Apr 5, 1:43 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Laurens	48 min
Apr 5, 1:44 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Catawba, Davie, Iredell, Rowan	61 min
Apr 5, 1:51 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	York	41 min
Apr 5, 1:53 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Union	67 min
Apr 5, 2:08 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Abbeville, Greenwood	50 min
Apr 5, 2:21 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Chester, Union	54 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

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), launched 00:00Z, 1.8 hours before the alert went out and 248 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 2364 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 144 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 291 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 4, 9:18 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bartow, Carroll, Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas and 6 more	87 min
Apr 4, 10:05 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baker, Baldwin, Ben Hill, Bibb, Bleckley, Butts and 61 more	55 min
Apr 4, 10:28 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Baker, Baldwin, Ben Hill, Bibb, Bleckley, Butts and 73 more	6 hr
Apr 5, 12:21 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baker, Baldwin, Bibb, Bleckley, Butts, Calhoun and 62 more	84 min
Apr 5, 12:48 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Burke, Columbia, Lincoln, McDuffie, Richmond	5 hr
Apr 5, 2:41 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks and 25 more	6 hr
Apr 5, 2:55 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bleckley and 55 more	2 hr
Apr 5, 3:34 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Burke	116 min
Apr 5, 5:39 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Brantley, Camden, Charlton, Chatham, Glynn, Liberty and 1 more	2 hr
Apr 4, 9:32 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alexander, Buncombe, Burke, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston and 8 more	58 min
Apr 5, 12:36 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Alleghany, Caswell, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, Wilkes and 1 more	111 min
Apr 5, 2:13 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Forsyth, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, Yadkin	32 min
Apr 5, 2:18 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bertie, Camden, Caswell, Chowan, Currituck, Gates and 5 more	8 hr
Apr 5, 2:24 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Rowan	66 min
Apr 5, 4:00 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven and 15 more	6 hr
Apr 5, 7:08 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Brunswick, Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Dare and 10 more	2 hr
Apr 5, 10:15 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret and 26 more	90 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in North Carolina, 2011 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in South Carolina, 2011 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Georgia, 2011 Every severe thunderstorm watch in 2011

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.