Alert archive / North Carolina / Tornado Watches in 2025
Tornado Watch 56
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Mar 16, 2025, 7:38 PM EDT for 41 counties in North Carolina; 33 counties in Virginia. It was in force for 5 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Mar 16, 2025, 7:38 PM EDT (23:38 UTC)
- Expired
- Mar 17, 2025, 1:00 AM EDT
- In force
- 5 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 1.5 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 74 counties
Alamance County, NC, Beaufort County, NC, Bertie County, NC, Caswell County, NC, Chatham County, NC, Craven County, NC, Cumberland County, NC, Duplin County, NC, Durham County, NC, Edgecombe County, NC, Franklin County, NC, Granville County, NC, Greene County, NC, Guilford County, NC, Halifax County, NC, Harnett County, NC, Hertford County, NC, Hoke County, NC, Johnston County, NC, Jones County, NC, Lee County, NC, Lenoir County, NC, Martin County, NC, Montgomery County, NC, Moore County, NC, Nash County, NC, Northampton County, NC, Onslow County, NC, Orange County, NC, Person County, NC, Pitt County, NC, Randolph County, NC, Richmond County, NC, Rockingham County, NC, Sampson County, NC, Scotland County, NC, Vance County, NC, Wake County, NC, Warren County, NC, Wayne County, NC, Wilson County, NC, Amelia County, VA, Appomattox County, VA, Brunswick County, VA, Buckingham County, VA, Campbell County, VA, Charles City County, VA, Charlotte County, VA, Chesterfield County, VA, City of Colonial Heights, VA, City of Danville, VA, City of Emporia, VA, City of Franklin, VA, City of Hopewell, VA, City of Petersburg, VA, City of Richmond, VA, Cumberland County, VA, Dinwiddie County, VA, Fluvanna County, VA, Goochland County, VA, Greensville County, VA, Halifax County, VA, Henrico County, VA, Lunenburg County, VA, Mecklenburg County, VA, New Kent County, VA, Nottoway County, VA, Pittsylvania County, VA, Powhatan County, VA, Prince Edward County, VA, Prince George County, VA, Southampton County, VA, Surry County, VA, Sussex County, VA
The radar
The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 92 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:38 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
- 40%
- 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
- 60%
Warnings issued inside it
10 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 16, 7:44 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MHX | Duplin, Jones, Lenoir, Onslow | 46 min |
| Mar 16, 7:51 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RNK | Caswell, Rockingham | 54 min |
| Mar 16, 7:54 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RAH | Anson, Richmond | 51 min |
| Mar 16, 8:14 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RAH | Chatham, Lee, Moore, Wake | 46 min |
| Mar 16, 10:04 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RNK | Appomattox, Buckingham, Campbell, Charlotte, Halifax, Pittsylvania | 17 min |
| Mar 16, 10:15 PM EDT | Flash Flood Warning | RAH | Wake | 2 hr |
| Mar 16, 10:40 PM EDT | Flash Flood Warning | RAH | Franklin, Halifax, Nash, Vance, Warren | 3 hr |
| Mar 16, 11:29 PM EDT | Flash Flood Warning | AKQ | Brunswick, Charles City, Dinwiddie, Greensville, James City, New Kent and 4 more | 4 hr |
| Mar 16, 11:52 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AKQ | Charles City, Isle of Wight, James City, Prince George, Southampton, Surry and 2 more | 23 min |
| Mar 17, 12:16 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AKQ | Gloucester, James City, King and Queen, Lancaster, Mathews, Middlesex and 5 more | 44 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, 11.6 hours before the alert went out and 163 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
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- No buoyant parcel
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 892 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 75 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 427 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 866 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.7
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 15, 9:57 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Cherokee | 2 hr |
| Mar 16, 5:30 AM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Anson, Hoke, Montgomery, Moore, Richmond, Robeson and 2 more | 60 min |
| Mar 16, 6:12 AM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Alamance, Anson, Bladen, Brunswick, Chatham, Columbus and 31 more | 8 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, 4:25 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Alamance, Anson, Cabarrus, Caswell, Chatham, Davidson and 23 more | 95 min |
| Mar 16, 6:17 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Alamance, Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Caswell, Chatham and 39 more | 118 min |
| Mar 16, 12:50 PM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Highland, Page, Rockingham and 6 more | 7 hr |
| Mar 16, 4:26 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Albemarle, Arlington, Augusta, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax and 33 more | 94 min |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 2025Tornado Watches in Virginia, 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.