Alert archive / Virginia / Tornado Watches in 2025

Tornado Watch 348

May 30, 202520 counties in North Carolina; 55 counties in Virginia; 24 counties in West Virginia

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 30, 2025, 1:37 PM EDT for 20 counties in North Carolina; 55 counties in Virginia; 24 counties in West Virginia. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 30, 2025, 1:37 PM EDT (17:37 UTC)
Expired: May 30, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 99 counties

Alamance County, NC, Alleghany County, NC, Ashe County, NC, Caswell County, NC, Chatham County, NC, Davidson County, NC, Durham County, NC, Forsyth County, NC, Granville County, NC, Guilford County, NC, Orange County, NC, Person County, NC, Randolph County, NC, Rockingham County, NC, Stokes County, NC, Surry County, NC, Wake County, NC, Watauga County, NC, Wilkes County, NC, Yadkin County, NC, Albemarle County, VA, Alleghany County, VA, Amherst County, VA, Appomattox 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 Buena Vista, VA, City of Charlottesville, VA, City of Covington, VA, City of Danville, VA, City of Galax, VA, City of Harrisonburg, VA, City of Lexington, VA, City of Lynchburg, 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, 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, Madison County, VA, Montgomery County, VA, Nelson County, VA, Page County, VA, Patrick County, VA, Pittsylvania County, VA, Pulaski County, VA, Rappahannock County, VA, Roanoke County, VA, Rockbridge County, VA, Rockingham County, VA, Shenandoah County, VA, Smyth County, VA, Tazewell County, VA, Warren County, VA, Wythe County, VA, Berkeley County, WV, Braxton County, WV, Clay County, WV, Fayette County, WV, Grant County, WV, Greenbrier County, WV, Hampshire County, WV, Hardy County, WV, Jefferson County, WV, Lewis County, WV, McDowell County, WV, Mercer County, WV, Mineral County, WV, Monroe County, WV, Morgan County, WV, Nicholas County, WV, Pendleton County, WV, Pocahontas County, WV, Raleigh County, WV, Randolph County, WV, Summers County, WV, Upshur County, WV, Webster County, WV, Wyoming County, WV

The radar

The Roanoke radar (KFCX), 118 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:38 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: 50%
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: 20%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 30, 2:03 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Clay, Fayette, Kanawha, Nicholas, Raleigh	57 min
May 30, 2:37 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Braxton, Calhoun, Clay, Gilmer, Lewis, Nicholas and 4 more	53 min
May 30, 2:46 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Botetourt, Craig, Giles, Montgomery, Roanoke, City of Roanoke and 1 more	59 min
May 30, 2:56 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Fayette, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Webster	64 min
May 30, 3:05 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Carroll, Floyd, Franklin, Henry, Montgomery, Patrick and 4 more	55 min
May 30, 3:28 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Amherst, Bedford, Botetourt, Franklin, Roanoke, Rockbridge and 1 more	77 min
May 30, 3:29 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Barbour, Harrison, Lewis, Pocahontas, Randolph, Upshur and 1 more	61 min
May 30, 3:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Doddridge, Gilmer, Harrison, Lewis, Ritchie, Tyler	30 min
May 30, 3:57 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Chatham, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Moore, Wake	48 min
May 30, 3:59 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Franklin, Henry, Patrick, City of Martinsville	46 min
May 30, 4:01 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Pocahontas	23 min
May 30, 4:22 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Amherst, Appomattox, Buckingham, Campbell, Charlotte, Halifax and 2 more	83 min
May 30, 4:47 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Albemarle, Nelson	43 min
May 30, 5:27 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Albemarle, Augusta, Greene, Page, Rockingham, Shenandoah and 1 more	33 min
May 30, 5:50 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	LWX	Page, Rappahannock, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Warren	40 min
May 30, 5:55 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Culpeper, Greene, Madison, Page, Rappahannock, Rockingham and 2 more	50 min
May 30, 6:26 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	LWX	Fauquier, Rappahannock, Warren	19 min
May 30, 6:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, Rappahannock, Warren	45 min
May 30, 7:05 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Frederick	55 min
May 30, 7:11 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	LWX	Berkeley, Morgan	20 min
May 30, 7:28 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Clarke, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Prince William	47 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

Roanoke, VA (KRNK), launched 12:00Z, 5.6 hours before the alert went out and 80 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: 896 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 16 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 56 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
May 30, 11:48 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anson, Cabarrus, Catawba, Cleveland, Davidson, Davie and 14 more	117 min
May 30, 12:54 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Alexander, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland and 10 more	6 hr
May 30, 1:06 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Caswell, Granville, Guilford, Orange, Person and 2 more	114 min
May 30, 3:49 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Edgecombe, Franklin, Gates and 8 more	116 min
May 30, 3:50 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Duplin, Harnett and 10 more	85 min
May 30, 4:29 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Caswell, Guilford, Orange, Person, Rockingham	91 min
May 30, 4:33 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Anson, Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Camden and 44 more	4 hr
May 30, 6:48 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Camden, Chowan and 36 more	87 min
May 30, 5:01 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Accomack, Amelia, Arlington, Brunswick, Caroline, Charles City and 63 more	7 hr
May 30, 6:40 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Arlington, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Madison and 9 more	2 hr
May 30, 7:21 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Charles City, Dinwiddie, Essex, Gloucester, Henrico, Isle of Wight and 21 more	84 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Virginia, 2025 Tornado Watches in West Virginia, 2025 Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 2025 Every tornado watch in 2025

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.