Alert archive / Virginia / Tornado Watches in 2024

Tornado Watch 335

May 27, 202417 counties in Maryland; 40 counties in North Carolina; 71 counties in Virginia

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 27, 2024, 3:39 PM EDT for 17 counties in Maryland; 40 counties in North Carolina; 71 counties in Virginia. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 27, 2024, 3:39 PM EDT (19:39 UTC)
Expired: May 27, 2024, 10:12 PM EDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 128 counties

Anne Arundel County, MD, Baltimore County, MD, Calvert County, MD, Carroll County, MD, Cecil County, MD, Charles County, MD, City of Baltimore, MD, Dorchester County, MD, Frederick County, MD, Harford County, MD, Howard County, MD, Montgomery County, MD, Prince George's County, MD, Saint Mary's County, MD, Somerset County, MD, Wicomico County, MD, Worcester County, MD, Beaufort County, NC, Bertie County, NC, Camden County, NC, Carteret County, NC, Chowan County, NC, Craven County, NC, Cumberland County, NC, Currituck County, NC, Dare County, NC, Duplin County, NC, Edgecombe County, NC, Franklin County, NC, Gates County, NC, Granville County, NC, Greene County, NC, Halifax County, NC, Harnett County, NC, Hertford County, NC, Hoke County, NC, Hyde County, NC, Johnston County, NC, Jones County, NC, Lenoir County, NC, Martin County, NC, Nash County, NC, Northampton County, NC, Onslow County, NC, Pamlico County, NC, Pasquotank County, NC, Perquimans County, NC, Pitt County, NC, Sampson County, NC, Scotland County, NC, Tyrrell County, NC, Vance County, NC, Wake County, NC, Warren County, NC, Washington County, NC, Wayne County, NC, Wilson County, NC, Accomack County, VA, Amelia County, VA, Arlington County, VA, Brunswick County, VA, Caroline County, VA, Charles City County, VA, Chesterfield County, VA, City of Alexandria, VA, City of Chesapeake, VA, City of Colonial Heights, VA, City of Emporia, VA, City of Fairfax, VA, City of Falls Church, VA, City of Franklin, VA, City of Fredericksburg, VA, City of Hampton, VA, City of Hopewell, VA, City of Manassas, VA, City of Manassas Park, VA, City of Newport News, VA, City of Norfolk, VA, City of Petersburg, VA, City of Poquoson, VA, City of Portsmouth, VA, City of Richmond, VA, City of Suffolk, VA, City of Virginia Beach, VA, City of Williamsburg, VA, Culpeper County, VA, Cumberland County, VA, Dinwiddie County, VA, Essex County, VA, Fairfax County, VA, Fauquier County, VA, Fluvanna County, VA, Gloucester County, VA, Goochland County, VA, Greensville County, VA, Hanover County, VA, Henrico County, VA, Isle of Wight County, VA, James City County, VA, King and Queen County, VA, King George County, VA, King William County, VA, Lancaster County, VA, Loudoun County, VA, Louisa County, VA, Lunenburg County, VA, Madison County, VA, Mathews County, VA, Mecklenburg County, VA, Middlesex County, VA, New Kent County, VA, Northampton County, VA, Northumberland County, VA, Nottoway County, VA, Orange County, VA, Powhatan County, VA, Prince Edward County, VA, Prince George County, VA, Prince William County, VA, Rappahannock County, VA, Richmond County, VA, Southampton County, VA, Spotsylvania County, VA, Stafford County, VA, Surry County, VA, Sussex County, VA, Westmoreland County, VA, York County, VA

The radar

The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 93 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:39 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: 40%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 30%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 10%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 27, 3:45 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	RAH	Halifax	32 min
May 27, 4:06 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	RAH	Edgecombe, Franklin, Halifax, Nash, Wilson	39 min
May 27, 4:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Northampton	38 min
May 27, 4:08 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Bertie, Northampton	52 min
May 27, 4:13 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Edgecombe, Halifax	53 min
May 27, 4:15 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	RAH	Edgecombe, Halifax	34 min
May 27, 4:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Frederick, Washington	59 min
May 27, 4:38 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Greensville, Southampton, Sussex, City of Emporia	37 min
May 27, 4:51 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Edgecombe, Halifax	24 min
May 27, 4:54 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Bertie, Gates, Hertford, Northampton	51 min
May 27, 4:54 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Beaufort, Martin, Pitt	51 min
May 27, 4:58 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Isle of Wight, Southampton, City of Franklin	47 min
May 27, 5:14 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Martin, Pitt	31 min
May 27, 5:20 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Isle of Wight, York, City of Hampton, City of Newport News, City of Poquoson, City of Suffolk	40 min
May 27, 5:33 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Gloucester, James City, King and Queen, York	42 min
May 27, 5:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Gates, Hertford, Pasquotank and 1 more	54 min
May 27, 5:38 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Carroll, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery	37 min
May 27, 5:41 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Martin, Tyrrell, Washington	64 min
May 27, 5:44 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Martin, Washington	31 min
May 27, 6:02 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	City of Chesapeake, City of Hampton, City of Newport News, City of Norfolk, City of Poquoson, City of Portsmouth and 2 more	43 min
May 27, 6:05 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Gloucester, Mathews, Middlesex	28 min
May 27, 6:10 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Baltimore, Carroll, Howard	35 min
May 27, 6:11 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Tyrrell, Washington	34 min
May 27, 6:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Beaufort, Hyde, Martin, Tyrrell, Washington	45 min
May 27, 6:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Carroll, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery	44 min
May 27, 6:21 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Pasquotank, Perquimans	69 min
May 27, 6:23 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Beaufort, Hyde, Martin, Washington	37 min
May 27, 6:31 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	City of Chesapeake, City of Virginia Beach	46 min
May 27, 6:38 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MHX	Dare, Tyrrell	52 min
May 27, 6:44 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ	City of Virginia Beach	26 min
May 27, 6:45 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	AKQ	Camden, Currituck, Pasquotank	29 min
May 27, 6:51 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Montgomery	39 min
May 27, 6:53 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Beaufort, Hyde, Tyrrell, Washington	37 min
May 27, 6:55 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard, City of Baltimore	65 min
May 27, 7:24 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Hyde, Tyrrell, Washington	36 min
May 27, 7:28 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	LWX	Baltimore, Howard, City of Baltimore	2 hr
May 27, 7:40 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's	50 min
May 27, 7:53 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, City of Alexandria, City of Fairfax, City of Manassas and 1 more	52 min
May 27, 8:01 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning Considerable damage threat	LWX	Baltimore, Howard, City of Baltimore	86 min
May 27, 8:09 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	LWX	Anne Arundel, Howard, Prince George's	21 min
May 27, 8:11 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's, City of Baltimore	49 min
May 27, 8:33 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Prince George's	42 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

Wallops Is Stn, VA (KWAL), launched 12:00Z, 7.7 hours before the alert went out and 107 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: 320 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -116 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 757 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 63 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 1.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 27, 11:53 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Kent, New Castle, Sussex	2 hr
May 27, 1:42 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Kent, New Castle, Sussex	7 hr
May 27, 7:40 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Kent, New Castle, Sussex	2 hr
May 26, 8:44 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Charles, Frederick, Montgomery, Prince George's, Washington	3 hr
May 26, 10:18 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Carroll, Charles, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's and 2 more	87 min
May 27, 4:49 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Charles, Dorchester, Howard and 8 more	86 min
May 27, 4:40 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and 6 more	95 min
May 26, 8:27 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alexander, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland and 19 more	93 min
May 26, 10:05 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Harnett, Johnston and 7 more	85 min
May 26, 10:43 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Cherokee, Clay	7 hr
May 27, 3:47 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and 3 more	118 min
May 27, 6:13 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Gaston, Mecklenburg, Union	2 hr
May 27, 2:37 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Anson, Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick and 47 more	83 min
May 26, 11:06 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Dickenson, Lee, Scott, Wise, City of Norton	7 hr
May 27, 3:05 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott, Washington, Wise and 2 more	55 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Virginia, 2024 Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 2024 Tornado Watches in Maryland, 2024 Every tornado watch in 2024

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.