Alert archive / North Carolina / Mesoscale Discussions in 2026

Mesoscale Discussion 704

May 11, 20266 counties in North Carolina; 4 counties in South Carolina

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at May 11, 2026, 12:43 PM EDT for 6 counties in North Carolina; 4 counties in South Carolina. It was in force for 2 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued
May 11, 2026, 12:43 PM EDT (16:43 UTC)
Expired
May 11, 2026, 2:45 PM EDT
In force
2 hr
Issued by
the Storm Prediction Center
Concerning
Severe potential...watch unlikely
Chance of a watch
5%

Counties Brunswick County, NC, Carteret County, NC, Columbus County, NC, New Hanover County, NC, Onslow County, NC, Pender County, NC, Berkeley County, SC, Charleston County, SC, Georgetown County, SC, Horry County, SC

The radar

The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 45 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 16:46 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.

The nearest sounding before it

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 12:00Z, 4.7 hours before the alert went out and 224 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-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Charleston AFB, SC at 12:00Z on 2026-05-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 459 joules per kilogram.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Charleston AFB, SC at 12:00Z on 2026-05-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 54 square meters per square second.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
459 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-57 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
988 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
54 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted.

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in North Carolina, 2026Mesoscale Discussions in South Carolina, 2026Every mesoscale discussion in 2026

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.