Alert archive / North Carolina / Tornado Watches in 2025
Tornado Watch 51
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Mar 16, 2025, 6:12 AM EDT for 12 counties in Georgia; 37 counties in North Carolina; 27 counties in South Carolina. It was in force for 8 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Mar 16, 2025, 6:12 AM EDT (10:12 UTC)
- Expired
- Mar 16, 2025, 2:00 PM EDT
- In force
- 8 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 0.5 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 76 counties
Bryan County, GA, Bulloch County, GA, Candler County, GA, Chatham County, GA, Effingham County, GA, Evans County, GA, Jenkins County, GA, Liberty County, GA, Long County, GA, McIntosh County, GA, Screven County, GA, Tattnall County, GA, Alamance County, NC, Anson County, NC, Bladen County, NC, Brunswick County, NC, Chatham County, NC, Columbus County, NC, Cumberland County, NC, Davidson County, NC, Durham County, NC, Edgecombe County, NC, Forsyth County, NC, Franklin County, NC, Granville County, NC, Guilford County, NC, Halifax County, NC, Harnett County, NC, Hoke County, NC, Johnston County, NC, Lee County, NC, Montgomery County, NC, Moore County, NC, Nash County, NC, New Hanover County, NC, Orange County, NC, Pender County, NC, Person County, NC, Randolph County, NC, Richmond County, NC, Robeson County, NC, Sampson County, NC, Scotland County, NC, Stanly County, NC, Vance County, NC, Wake County, NC, Warren County, NC, Wayne County, NC, Wilson County, NC, Allendale County, SC, Bamberg County, SC, Barnwell County, SC, Beaufort County, SC, Berkeley County, SC, Calhoun County, SC, Charleston County, SC, Chesterfield County, SC, Clarendon County, SC, Colleton County, SC, Darlington County, SC, Dillon County, SC, Dorchester County, SC, Florence County, SC, Georgetown County, SC, Hampton County, SC, Horry County, SC, Jasper County, SC, Kershaw County, SC, Lee County, SC, Lexington County, SC, Marion County, SC, Marlboro County, SC, Orangeburg County, SC, Richland County, SC, Sumter County, SC, Williamsburg County, SC
The radar
The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 108 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 10:13 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
- 20%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 10%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 70%
Warnings issued inside it
23 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 16, 6:29 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAE | Aiken, Barnwell | 46 min |
| Mar 16, 6:42 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAE | Aiken, Edgefield, Lexington, Newberry, Saluda | 48 min |
| Mar 16, 6:55 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | CAE | Barnwell | 24 min |
| Mar 16, 7:01 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | CHS | Allendale | 20 min |
| Mar 16, 7:12 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAE | Aiken, Bamberg, Barnwell, Orangeburg | 48 min |
| Mar 16, 7:14 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | CAE | Bamberg, Barnwell | 31 min |
| Mar 16, 7:25 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAE | Aiken, Calhoun, Lexington, Newberry, Orangeburg, Richland and 1 more | 65 min |
| Mar 16, 7:39 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | CAE | Fairfield, Lexington, Newberry, Richland | 36 min |
| Mar 16, 7:58 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAE | Bamberg, Calhoun, Orangeburg, Richland | 62 min |
| Mar 16, 8:23 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Bulloch, Candler, Jenkins, Screven | 52 min |
| Mar 16, 8:32 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Bryan, Bulloch, Candler, Evans, Liberty, Long and 2 more | 43 min |
| Mar 16, 8:45 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAE | Kershaw, Lee, Richland, Sumter | 60 min |
| Mar 16, 8:55 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | CHS | Screven | 18 min |
| Mar 16, 9:01 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Screven | 44 min |
| Mar 16, 9:06 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Bryan, Bulloch, Evans, Liberty, Long, Tattnall | 40 min |
| Mar 16, 9:08 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Bulloch, Effingham, Screven | 38 min |
| Mar 16, 9:15 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RAH | Anson, Davidson, Montgomery, Moore, Randolph, Richmond and 2 more | 45 min |
| Mar 16, 9:34 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | RAH | Stanly | 26 min |
| Mar 16, 10:25 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RAH | Chatham, Harnett, Hoke, Lee, Montgomery, Moore and 3 more | 50 min |
| Mar 16, 11:03 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RAH | Chatham, Cumberland, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Harnett and 6 more | 57 min |
| Mar 16, 11:22 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Liberty, McIntosh | 38 min |
| Mar 16, 11:42 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RAH | Cumberland, Harnett, Johnston, Sampson | 48 min |
| Mar 16, 12:51 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RAH | Halifax, Warren | 24 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
Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 00:00Z, 10.2 hours before the alert went out and 120 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
- 5 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -16 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1048 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 46 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 88 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 15, 8:02 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Baker, Barrow, Bartow, Bibb, Butts, Calhoun and 53 more | 118 min |
| Mar 15, 8:47 PM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Bartow, Carroll, Chattahoochee, Cherokee, Clay, Clayton and 29 more | 8 hr |
| Mar 16, 12:19 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Chattahoochee, Harris, Heard, Meriwether, Muscogee, Quitman and 2 more | 116 min |
| Mar 16, 1:47 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Baker, Baldwin, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bibb, Bleckley and 56 more | 58 min |
| Mar 16, 2:18 AM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Atkinson, Baker, Baldwin, Barrow, Ben Hill, Berrien and 72 more | 9 hr |
| Mar 16, 4:43 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Baker, Ben Hill, Bleckley, Colquitt, Columbia, Crisp and 26 more | 92 min |
| Mar 16, 5:30 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bryan, Bulloch, Effingham, Evans, Screven, Tattnall | 60 min |
| Mar 16, 7:28 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bacon, Brantley, Camden, Charlton, Clinch, Echols and 4 more | 92 min |
| Mar 16, 8:04 AM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Appling, Bacon, Brantley, Camden, Charlton, Clinch and 5 more | 9 hr |
| Mar 16, 9:31 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Appling, Bacon, Brantley, Bryan, Bulloch, Camden and 17 more | 89 min |
| Mar 16, 11:39 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Brantley, Camden, Charlton, Glynn, Pierce, Ware | 96 min |
| Mar 16, 2:21 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Camden | 84 min |
| Mar 16, 4:25 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Burke, Screven | 95 min |
| Mar 15, 9:57 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Cherokee | 2 hr |
| Mar 16, 9:49 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Alamance, Anson, Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick and 54 more | 116 min |
| Mar 16, 1:13 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret and 31 more | 92 min |
| Mar 16, 6:17 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Alamance, Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Caswell, Chatham and 39 more | 118 min |
| Mar 16, 7:38 PM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Alamance, Beaufort, Bertie, Caswell, Chatham, Craven and 35 more | 5 hr |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 2025Tornado Watches in South Carolina, 2025Tornado Watches in Georgia, 2025Every 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.