NWS Issues Tornado Watch & Severe Weather Threat For AL, GA, NC, & SC

The NWS Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK, has issued a Tornado Watch and Severe Weather Threat for portions of:

Alabama.
Georgia.
North Carolina.
South Carolina.

This is Status Report #3 of Weather Watch 21

A summary of the current situation indicates that the remainder of south central Georgia into the South Carolina Piedmont area, east of the area encompassing WW 21, will continue to be monitored for the possibility of an increasing severe threat. A new WW may not be needed in the near term, but one may be possible later on this evening.

The latest rapid refresh suggests that the intense southerly 850 MB jet core is in the process of redeveloping northeastward into the western Carolinas, but only a narrow corridor of 50-70 KT 850 MB flow is forecast to linger to the south, slowly shifting to the east across central/eastern Georgia.

To the east of this axis, a lower surface dew points associated with a stronger boundary layer warming/mixing is limiting instability. It appears the primary convective potential will remain along and to the west of this axis, where weak boundary layer of instability and strong low-level shear will continue to support a risk for super-cells with tornadoes. This is expected to generally remain to the west of the Columbia, South Carolina area into the 00-01z time frame.

Alabama counties included in this Weather Watch include, Barbour, Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston, and Russell.

Georgia counties include:

Baldwin, Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Bibb, Bleckley, Butts, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattahoochee, Clarke, Clay, Colquit, Crawford, Decatur, Dooly, Dougherty, Early, Elbert, Franklin, Grady, Greene, Hancock, Harris, Hart, Henry, Houston, Jackson, Jasper, Jones, Lamar, Lee, Macon, Madison, Marion, Meriwether, Miller, Mitchell, Monroe, Morgan, Muscogee, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Peach, Pike, Pulaski, Putnam, Quitman, Randolph, Rockdale, Schley, Seminole, Spalding, Stephens, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taliaferro, Taylor, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Turner, Twiggs, Upson, Walton, Webster, Wilkes, Wilkinson and Worth.

North Carolina counties include:

Alexander, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland, Davie, Gaston, Henderson, Iredell, Lincoln, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Mitchell, Polk, rowan, Rutherford, Transylvania and Rowan.

South Carolina counties include:

Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Chester, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens, Spartansburg, Union and York.

Jim Donahue Reporting