Forums: Invisible Storm in NC?

A post on the WeatherMatrix Current Weather Forum caught my eye this morning. ConvectiveOutlook said on August 9th:

I did a little investigation on the storm in question. Here is the warning issued by the National Weather Service. The warning was in effect for only 30 minutes, and depending on where ConvectiveOutlook lives in Moore county, it could have seemed like the thunder started, then stopped suddenly.

Why? According to a radar animation from Plymouth State University, several single storms "pulsed" in Moore county (in the center of the radar picture), then quickly dissipated. The first two storms lasted 30 minutes, the largest (shown at left) lasted for a little over an hour.

There were no Storm Reports issued that day in Moore county for this storm; all reports were north and west of the area.

But what about local weather observations? Moore County is near an "observations hole" (see right) devoid of National Weather Service reporting stations (usually housed at airports and military bases). The only observing station is in the county -- Southern Pines (SOP), and the storms dissipated before hitting it, so there is no official record of them.