[STORMREPORTS] Details: Raleigh narrowly misses significant Tornado

From: Jesse Ferrell - WeatherMatrix (jesse{at}weathermatrix.net)
Date: Sat Jun 02 2001 - 13:39:52 EDT


-------- Original Message --------
Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2001 12:30:03 -0400
From: WeatherMatrix Member "William N. Harrell, Jr."

------=_NextPart_001_0008_01C0EB5F.BF75C200
Content-Type: text/plain;
        charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

  Special Bulletin that came downline at 130pm from National Severe
Storms
Forecast Center

  ACUS3 KMKC 011732
  SWOMCD
  MKC MCD 011731
  NCZ000-SCZ000-01845-

  SPC MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0984 FOR CENTRAL/ERN NC AND ERN SC
  CONCERNING...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 343...

  SUPERCELL THUNDERSTORM MOVING TOWARDS THE METRO RALEIGH AREA
  PRESENTLY. THERE WILL BE AN ENHANCED THREAT OF LARGE HAIL AND
  POSSIBLY A BRIEF TORNADO WITH THIS CELL DURING THE NEXT HOUR AS IT
  MOVES ACROSS WAKE COUNTY. OTHER SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CONTINUE TO
  DEVELOP OVER WW 343...AND WILL CONTINUE TO LIKELY PRODUCE LARGE
  HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS.

  LATEST 88-D IMAGERY OUT OF RALEIGH INDICATES A SUPERCELL
  THUNDERSTORM EXHIBITING A WELL DEFINED HOOK ECHO NEAR THE
  CHATHAM/WAKE COUNTY BORDER...MOVING NEWD AROUND 25 KTS. PRESENT
  STORM MOTION WOULD TAKE THIS STORM OVER THE SRN PORTION OF THE
  METRO RALEIGH AREA. LATEST SURFACE MAP INDICATES A LOCAL
  BACKING/STRENGTHENING OF WINDS OUT AHEAD OF THIS CELL AND OTHER
  NEWLY DEVELOPED CELLS OVER SERN/SCENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA. IMPUTING
  ABOVE MENTIONED STORM MOTIONS WITH LATEST VWP OUT OF RALEIGH GIVES
  0-3 KM SRH AROUND 140 M2/S2. THUS...AN ENHANCED THREAT OF LARGE
  HAIL/DAMAGING WINDS APPEARS LIKELY ACROSS THE AREA...ESPECIALLY
  WITH THE SUPERCELL THAT WILL MOVE THROUGH WAKE COUNTY IN THE NEXT
  HOUR. THERE IS ALSO A POSSIBILITY OF A BRIEF TORNADO WITHIN ANY
  STORMS THAT BECOME SUPERCELLS...GIVEN THE STRENGTH OF THE 0-1 KM
  SHEAR FAIRLY LOW LCL HEIGHTS.

  ..CROSBIE.. 06/01/01

  ...PLEASE SEE WWW.SPC.NOAA.GOV/ FOR GRAPHIC PRODUCT...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

TORNADO WARNING FOR... WAKE COUNTY IN NORTH CAROLINA

* UNTIL 215 PM EDT

* AT 141 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO 3 MILES SOUTH OF CARPENTER...OR ABOUT 4 MILES WEST OF CARY...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 30 MPH.

* SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO INCLUDE... APEX CARPENTER CARY MORRISVILLE RALEIGH RDU INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE DURING A TORNADO IS ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF THE BUILDING IN AN INTERIOR HALLWAY OR ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET. USE BLANKETS OR PILLOWS TO COVER YOUR BODY AND ALWAYS STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

REPORT SEVERE WEATHER TO THE NEAREST LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY. THEY WILL RELAY YOUR REPORT TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST OFFICE.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --

National Weather Service Comments this Saturday Morning: A series of strong storms rumbled through the Triangle on Friday afternoon, causing multiple vehicle wrecks and knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses. The National Weather Service office in Raleigh said it received nearly a dozen reports of funnel clouds as the storms moved through the Capital City about 2:30 p.m., but there were no confirmed tornado touchdowns.

Forecasters said the Triangle was lucky.

"The radar showed more rotation, which is the best indicator of a tornado, than we have seen around here in a long time," said Kermit Keeter, a meteorologist at the NWS office in Raleigh. "There were lots of tornado circulations just a few hundred feet off the ground. If they had come down just a little more, we would have had an awful mess."

Doppler Image of Tornado above ground over Cary

Notice the well defined Hook Echo that is indicative of rotation. Fortunately for all, the major rotation never got down with 800 or so feel from the ground. An engineer with Time Warner was over on Blue Ridge road between Rex Hospital and the ESA/Carter Finley/Fairgrounds area. He saw 3 funnels lower from the wall cloud rotation and then ascend back up into the major rotation that moved from over Cary (between my house and downtown) and then up over the ESA area and then into N raleigh.

William N. Harrell, Jr. 1015 Climbing Rose Turn Cary, North Carolina 27511 wharrell{at}nc.rr.com

=================================================== STORMREPORTS Email List - For CASI Members Only Set Yourself to "DIGEST" For ONE EMAIL PER DAY!

TO UNSUBSCRIBE: stormreports-unsubscribe{at}casi-internal

TO UNSUBSCRIBE, SUSPEND, CHANGE EMAIL, OR DIGEST: http://www.casi-internal/subscribe/stormreports

RULES: http://www.weatherwatchers.org/members/casisr.html ===================================================

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jul 07 2001 - 19:28:09 EDT