Charleston Weather

Tagged: tornado watch 789 RSS

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  Jared Smith 11:11 pm on December 2, 2009 Permalink
  Tags: Recap, Severe Weather (12), tornado watch 789   

  Tornado watch canceled; threat ends 

  The Tornado Watch which has been with us for most of the afternoon — and stuck around a little longer than anticipated — has finally been dropped for the area.

  We were very fortunate that the severe weather outbreak that had been predicted for this afternoon did not play out. One major factor was the lack of sunshine — because the clouds hung around, this kept a lid on the most explosive convection. Another factor was timing; storms did not begin to reintensify until they were largely offshore. We did notice the squall line falter and then pick up just before it pushed offshore, prompting a fairly long period where the Charleston area was warned for severe weather. After pushing offshore, very distinct rotations in the cells developed and are now moving ashore in the Grand Strand and into southeast North Carolina.

  Flooding still persists throughout the region. Downtown streets, which have been turned to rivers twice in 12 hours, will need some time to clear out — the lowering tides will help. There’s also reports of standing water in Goose Creek, Moncks Corner, and North Charleston. If you encounter standing water, please do not attempt to cross — it’s hard to judge the depth of water during the day, and it’s nearly impossible at night.

  Winds will remain strong through midday Thursday on the lakes; a Lake Wind Advisory continues for Lake Moultrie until noon. Small craft are also urged to use caution during the day Thursday. Gale warnings are still up until 5am for waters out 20 nm.

  Here’s looking toward a much calmer and drier Thursday. We might see some rain peek back into the forecast Friday night; still tough to pin that one down, though.

   

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  Jared Smith 9:47 pm on December 2, 2009 Permalink
  Tags: Severe Weather (12), tornado watch 789   

  Tornado Watch extended to 11 PM 

  NWS has extended Tornado Watch 789, previously scheduled to expire at 9 PM, to 11 PM. The main line of storms is about through Charleston now, but there seems to be some activity kicking up behind it — better safe than sorry. After these last few rounds of activity clear, I suspect the watch will be dropped, especially as the highest probability of tornadic activity has moved northeast into the Grand Strand and eastern North Carolina. Will continue to watch…

   
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  Jared Smith 3:24 pm on December 2, 2009 Permalink
  Tags: Severe Weather (12), tornado watch (3), tornado watch 789   

  Tornado Watch 789 until 9 PM 

  It’s official, and about an hour before I thought: the Charleston area — and indeed, all of eastern SC — is now under a tornado watch. Primary threats cited in the watch discussion include damaging winds in excess of 70 MPH, half-inch sized hail, frequent and dangerous lightning, and of course tornadoes. The discussion in full:

  Tornadoes…hail to 0.5 inch in diameter…thunderstorm wind
  gusts to 70 mph…and dangerous lightning are possible in these
  areas.

  The Tornado Watch area is approximately along and 80 statute
  miles either side of a line from 55 miles west southwest of
  Savannah Georgia to 45 miles east northeast of Orangeburg South
  Carolina. For a complete depiction of the watch see the
  associated watch outline update (wous64 kwns wou9).

  Remember…a Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for
  tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch
  area. Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for
  threatening weather conditions and listen for later statements
  and possible warnings.

  Other watch information…continue…ww 788…

  Discussion…a mesolow/MCV in central GA will track newd along a
  retreating warm front into central SC through the afternoon…and
  ongoing pre-frontal storms will continue to spread newd over se GA
  into srn SC. The moist and weakly unstable warm sector will surge
  nwd across SC in advance of the low…while low-mid level vertical
  shear will remain quite favorable for embedded supercells capable of
  producing a few tornadoes and damaging winds.

  Storms in southern Georgia have been kicking up a lot of lightning this afternoon, and as I write this, there are two active tornado warnings there. This is definitely something to watch closely as the afternoon progresses and we get into that rush hour time.

  For the record, the time of next high tide is around 7:30. That is expected to be a lower high tide, forecasted at 5.15 feet; however, any rapid rainfall on top of an already soaked Downtown could once again put streets underwater this evening. RADAR is not estimating the same rainfall rates out of the Georgia storms as we saw this morning; however, anything above half an inch per hour could prove problematic for an already overwhelmed drainage system.

  Jared Smith is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Jared Smith 4:50 pm on December 2, 2009 Permalink

    New AFD, just released a few minutes ago:

    WITH THE IMPRESSIVE DYNAMIC FORCING AND INCREASINGLY
    FAVORABLE THERMODYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT SETTING UP OVER THE FORECAST
    AREA…EXPECT AN ACTIVE EVENING WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT
    STRAIGHT LINE DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 75 MPH AND STRONG LONG
    TRACKED TORNADOES OF EF2 STRENGTH OR GREATER.

    Rain is going to start again shortly in Dorchester County, sliding up the coast and eastward. Going to begin to get very rough here in the next hour or so.