Alert archive / North Carolina / Tornado Watches in 2018
Tornado Watch 380
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Sep 16, 2018, 4:14 PM EDT for 10 counties in North Carolina; Chesterfield County, South Carolina. It was in force for 7 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Sep 16, 2018, 4:14 PM EDT (20:14 UTC)
- Expired
- Sep 16, 2018, 11:00 PM EDT
- In force
- 7 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 0.5 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
Counties Anson County, NC, Cumberland County, NC, Harnett County, NC, Hoke County, NC, Lee County, NC, Montgomery County, NC, Moore County, NC, Richmond County, NC, Sampson County, NC, Scotland County, NC, Chesterfield County, SC
The radar
The Raleigh/Durham radar (KRAX), 108 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:19 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
- 40%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 20%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 5%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 5%
- 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
- 20%
Warnings issued inside it
3 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 16, 4:22 PM EDT | Flash Flood Warning | RAH | Alamance, Chatham, Davidson, Forsyth, Guilford, Harnett and 3 more | 20 hr |
| Sep 16, 6:19 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | RAH | Scotland | 30 min |
| Sep 16, 7:34 PM EDT | Flash Flood Warning | CAE | Chesterfield | 6 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, 8.2 hours before the alert went out and 154 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
- 6 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -4 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 658 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 238 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 367 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.4
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 15, 9:14 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Hoke, New Hanover and 4 more | 2 hr |
| Sep 15, 11:01 PM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Hoke, New Hanover and 4 more | 8 hr |
| Sep 15, 11:59 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Pender, Robeson | 3 hr |
| Sep 16, 3:23 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Duplin, Hoke and 6 more | 2 hr |
| Sep 16, 6:32 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Duplin, Hoke and 6 more | 88 min |
| Sep 16, 6:55 AM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Anson, Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Hoke and 6 more | 16 hr |
| Sep 16, 11:22 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Hoke, Richmond, Robeson and 1 more | 113 min |
| Sep 16, 3:42 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Anson, Hoke, Richmond, Robeson, Scotland | 93 min |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 2018Tornado Watches in South Carolina, 2018Every tornado watch in 2018
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.