1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Wilmington, NC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 7, 1:32 PM EST, 28 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...CORRECTED MARINE DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON NC 232 PM EDT MON APR 7 2003 FIRST WAVE OF RAIN AND T-STORMS WILL BE CLEARING THE AREA LATER THIS AFTERNOON. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF HEAVIER SHOWERS AFFECTING THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES...MOST OF MY CWA SEE ONLY LIGHT PRECIPITATION OVERNIGHT. MODEL/MOS TEMPERATURES ARE NOT MUCH HELP WITH THE COLD POOL OVER THE NW 1/2 OF THE CWA HOLDING FIRM. NEXT WAVE OF LOW PRES IN THE LONG WAVE TRAIN WILL BRING A SHOT FOR SUBSTANTIAL RAINFALL TUESDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THERE IS DISAGREEMENT ON HOW FAST THIS IMPULSE MOVES EAST - THE GFS ROCKETS IT OFF THE COAST BY TOMORROW NIGHT BUT THE ETA ONLY SLOWLY MOVES IT OUT ABOUT 12 HOURS SLOWER. ETA SOLUTION COULD SPELL MUCH MORE RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS DUE TO ITS SLOWER MOVEMENT. UP UNTIL YESTERDAY WE HAVE HAD ALMOST A WEEK OF DRY WX AND PROGGED QPF TOTALS THIS WEEK DO NOT PRESENT A THREAT FOR SIGNIFICANT FLOODING. COASTAL LOW DEVELOPMENT WILL OCCUR LATE WED OFF THE GA COAST. THE LOW HAD BEEN PROGGED TO MOVE N/NE ALONG THE COAST AND MOVE EAST OF ILM. CURRENT GFS AND ECMWF PROGS NOW SHOW THE LOW BEING PULLED MORE N/NW BACK UNDER THE DEVELOPING UPPER SYSTEM AND CROSSING THE NC COAST. WILL KEEP HIGH (LIKELY TO OCCASIONALLY CATEGORICAL ALONG THE COAST) POPS IN THE FORECAST THRU THURSDAY WITH POPS TAPERING OFF FROM SOUTH TO NORTH THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY. GENERALLY WENT BELOW MAV/MEX TEMPERATURES THROUGH THE MEDIUM RANGE AND CLOSER TO NCEP MANUAL SFC PROGS. LATE FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY SHOULD FEATURE CLEAR SKIES AND MODERATING TEMPERATURES. MARINE: AREAS OF CONVECTION WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT THE WATERS THROUGH THE REMAINDER OF THE AFTERNOON INTO THIS EVENING. WEAK LOW WILL SPIN-UP ACROSS NE NC THEN SHIFT OFF THE MID-ATLC COAST THIS EVENING. THE OLD FRONT WILL BE ABLE TO SLIP S ACROSS THE WATERS AND BECOME QUASI-STNRY UNTIL ANOTHER FRONTAL WAVE RIDES ALONG THE FRONT FROM THE DEEP S TO THE CAROLINA COASTAL PLAIN DURING WED. BIG QUESTIONS LINGER W/ THE STRENGTH AND PROGRESSION OF THE COASTAL LOW DURING THU. THE GFS REMAINS STRONGER...AND IN ADDITION THERE ARE TIMING DIFFERENCES WITH THE PRECEDING WAVE. GIVEN CUT-OFF UPPER LOW FAVOR A SLOWER SOLN W/ THE SFC LOW WRAPPING UP INTO NC THEN EVENTUALLY MOVING OFF THE MID-ATLC COAST LATE FRI NIGHT OR EARLY SAT MORNING. OFFSHORE FLOW WILL BECOME PREVALENT DURING FRI...POSSIBLY BY FRI NIGHT W/ A WEAKENING PRES GRAD BY THIS WEEKEND. PRELIMINARY NUMBERS...SEE CCFILM FOR FINALS ILM 56 66 54 59 / 60 90 90 80 LBT 48 60 48 56 / 50 100 100 70 FLO 51 61 50 56 / 60 100 100 70 MYR 58 68 55 59 / 70 100 100 80 .ILM... NC...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY SURF CITY TO S SANTEE RIVER. SC...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY LITTLE RIVER INLET TO S SANTEE RIVER. PUBLIC: TRA MARINE: SRP
NCZ087-096-097-099>101-SCZ017-023-024-032>034-039-046-071445- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON NC 355 AM EDT MON APR 7 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA AND NORTHEASTERN SOUTH CAROLINA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. SCATTERED TO NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL AFFECT THE REGION TODAY AS A FRONTAL BOUNDARY OFFSHORE MOVES NORTH AND INLAND. AREAS OF LIGHT RAIN WILL OCCUR TONIGHT AS THE FRONTAL BOUNDARY DROPS BACK TO THE SOUTH AND INTO THE ATLANTIC WATERS BY MORNING. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY A SLOW MOVING UPPER SYSTEM IS FORECAST TO AFFECT THE AREA TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. AS THIS SYSTEM EVOLVES AT THE SURFACE...THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR ABOVE NORMAL TIDES WEDNESDAY INTO THURSDAY. THESE TIDES MAY REACH THRESHOLDS THAT COULD POSSIBLY CAUSE COASTAL FLOODING...OVERWASH AND BEACH EROSION. FORTUNATELY ASTRONOMICAL TIDES ARE BETWEEN A NEW AND FULL MOON. THERE ARE STILL SOME QUESTIONS AS TO THE STRENGTH...POSITIONING AND MOVEMENT OF THIS SYSTEM AND WILL BE CLOSELY MONITORED. THERE IS ALSO A POTENTIAL FOR 2 TO 4 INCH TOTAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. THESE TOTALS MAY CAUSE AREA RIVERS THAT HAVE RECENTLY RECEDED BELOW FLOOD STAGE...TO ONCE AGAIN RISE ABOVE THEIR BANKS. SEE THE LATEST RIVER FLOOD FORECASTS ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON NC. .SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT... SKYWARN SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY AND TONIGHT. HOEHLER
The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 18:59 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning started a fire at a large oceanfront home in Wrightsville Beach.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in North Carolina in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in North Carolina, April 2003
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5353595.