Alert archive / North Carolina / Tornado Watches in 2020

Tornado Watch 518

December 24, 202035 counties in North Carolina; 6 counties in South Carolina

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Dec 24, 2020, 2:19 PM EST for 35 counties in North Carolina; 6 counties in South Carolina. It was in force for 9 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Dec 24, 2020, 2:19 PM EST (19:19 UTC)
Expired: Dec 24, 2020, 11:00 PM EST
In force: 9 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 41 counties

Beaufort County, NC, Bladen County, NC, Brunswick County, NC, Carteret County, NC, Columbus County, NC, Craven County, NC, Cumberland County, NC, Dare County, NC, Duplin County, NC, Edgecombe County, NC, Franklin County, NC, Greene County, NC, Halifax County, NC, Harnett County, NC, Hoke County, NC, Hyde County, NC, Johnston County, NC, Jones County, NC, Lenoir County, NC, Martin County, NC, Nash County, NC, New Hanover County, NC, Onslow County, NC, Pamlico County, NC, Pender County, NC, Pitt County, NC, Robeson County, NC, Sampson County, NC, Scotland County, NC, Tyrrell County, NC, Wake County, NC, Warren County, NC, Washington County, NC, Wayne County, NC, Wilson County, NC, Dillon County, SC, Florence County, SC, Georgetown County, SC, Horry County, SC, Marion County, SC, Williamsburg County, SC

The radar

The Morehead City radar (KMHX), 69 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:23 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: 60%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 40%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 10%
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: 60%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Dec 24, 2:25 PM EST	Tornado Warning	ILM	Columbus	35 min
Dec 24, 2:35 PM EST	Tornado Warning	RAH	Johnston, Sampson, Wayne	40 min
Dec 24, 2:36 PM EST	Tornado Warning	ILM	Bladen	24 min
Dec 24, 2:46 PM EST	Tornado Warning	RAH	Cumberland, Sampson	14 min
Dec 24, 2:55 PM EST	Tornado Warning	ILM	Bladen, Columbus	35 min
Dec 24, 2:59 PM EST	Tornado Warning	RAH	Cumberland, Sampson	31 min
Dec 24, 3:15 PM EST	Tornado Warning	RAH	Johnston, Wayne	18 min
Dec 24, 3:16 PM EST	Tornado Warning	ILM	Columbus	29 min
Dec 24, 3:23 PM EST	Tornado Warning	ILM	Bladen, Columbus	37 min
Dec 24, 3:28 PM EST	Tornado Warning	RAH	Johnston, Sampson, Wayne	32 min
Dec 24, 3:45 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Franklin, Johnston, Wake	30 min
Dec 24, 3:54 PM EST	Tornado Warning	RAH	Cumberland, Sampson	36 min
Dec 24, 3:58 PM EST	Tornado Warning	RAH	Edgecombe, Johnston, Nash, Wayne, Wilson	32 min
Dec 24, 4:27 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Edgecombe, Halifax, Nash, Wilson	64 min
Dec 24, 4:30 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Johnston, Sampson, Wayne, Wilson	60 min
Dec 24, 4:50 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Martin, Pitt	25 min
Dec 24, 5:02 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Duplin, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, Pitt	58 min
Dec 24, 7:23 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MHX	Dare	16 min
Dec 24, 7:32 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MHX	Dare, Hyde	28 min
Dec 24, 8:17 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MHX	Dare, Hyde	13 min
Dec 24, 8:58 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Cumberland, Franklin, Halifax, Harnett, Johnston, Nash and 5 more	62 min
Dec 24, 9:39 PM EST	Tornado Warning	MHX	Dare, Hyde	21 min
Dec 24, 9:46 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Edgecombe, Halifax, Nash, Wayne, Wilson	74 min
Dec 24, 10:22 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Beaufort, Greene, Lenoir, Martin, Pitt	38 min
Dec 24, 10:28 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	New Hanover, Pender	17 min
Dec 24, 10:39 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Jones, Onslow	66 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, 7.3 hours before the alert went out and 68 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: 35 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -16 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1064 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 47 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 188 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 230 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
Dec 24, 12:16 PM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Duplin, Harnett and 8 more	2 hr
Dec 24, 2:28 PM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Madison, Mitchell, Yancey	5 hr
Dec 24, 3:08 PM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bladen, Columbus, Duplin, Edgecombe, Greene, Lenoir and 6 more	2 hr
Dec 24, 4:45 PM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Edgecombe, Gates and 7 more	60 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 2020 Tornado Watches in South Carolina, 2020 Every tornado watch in 2020

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.