
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 28, 1994                    TAG: 9406280325 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A6    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940628                                 LENGTH: Medium

MASSIVE SYSTEM WAS OMINOUS SUNDAY

{LEAD} Monday's storms were part of a massive arc of dangerously unstable weather, stretching from Mississippi to Virginia, that forecasters began watching late Sunday night. Once the storms began erupting, they moved at speeds reaching 55 mph, a characteristic more common during the spring than in June, forecasters said.

``They were moving incredibly fast,'' said George Lemons, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh. ``When you add movement to the down-burst of winds, you automatically have damaging winds in the 70 to 80 mph range.''

{REST} The damage, injuries and a fatality in North Carolina may have been caused solely by these straight-line winds. But Lemons said he suspects tornadoes played a role.

``We believe we may have had two or three small tornadoes,'' said Lemons. ``I would not be surprised if we did.''

Reports of tornadoes in North Carolina could not be confirmed Monday. Funnel clouds also were reportedly sighted in Virginia, but those remained unconfirmed. Lemons said an investigation into whether tornadoes touched down in North Carolina will be completed today.

The strong, upper-atmospheric system was unusual for June, Lemons said, and is more common during the early and middle months of spring, when unstable masses of cold and warm air often interact violently.

Forecasters first began warning North Carolina residents about the life-threatening weather late Sunday night. A severe thunderstorm and tornado warning, Lemons said, was revised throughout the early morning on Monday.

``This was potentially very dangerous,'' Lemons said. ``It was a huge complex stretching in a big arc all the way from Mississippi to Alabama and into North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.''

Lemons said the system split in two early Monday. Half moved straight into the Gulf of Mexico, causing little damage. But the other half, he said, ``plowed right into the Carolinas and Virginia.''

The springlike thunderstorm system sprinted through parts of Hampton Roads at about 12:30 p.m. after striking eastern North Carolina during the morning.

The system then moved across the James River to the Peninsula. The storm cells dissipated later in the afternoon over the Chesapeake Bay, forecasters said.

Damage in Virginia was limited mainly to felled trees and power lines. Winds reached nearly 65 mph in some places, said Tony Petrolito of the National Weather Service Office in Norfolk. by CNB