Alert archive / West Virginia / Flash Flood Warnings in 1989

Flash Flood Warning 67, NWS Charleston, WV

August 23, 1989Randolph County, West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this flash flood warning at Aug 23, 1989, 7:25 AM EDT for Randolph County, West Virginia. It was in force for 2 hr.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued
Aug 23, 1989, 7:25 AM EDT (11:25 UTC)
Expired
Aug 23, 1989, 9:30 AM EDT
In force
2 hr
Issued by
NWS Charleston, WV
Area
Whole counties

County Randolph County, WV

The radar

The WSR-88D network and its archive begin in 1991, so there is no radar volume for this alert.

The nearest sounding before it

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 00:00Z, 11.4 hours before the alert went out and 183 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 1989-08-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 274 joules per kilogram.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 1989-08-23The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 120 square meters per square second.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.
Mixed-layer CAPE
274 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-39 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
835 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this flash flood warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Aug 23, 2:13 AM EDT, 5 hours 12 minutes before
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
210 AM EDT WED AUG 23 1989

A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS WITH HEAVY RAIN DEVELOPED SHORTLY AFTER
MIDNIGHT IN THE WESTON/CLARKSBURG REGION...ON EAST THROUGH BARBOUR
..TUCKER...AND NORTHERN RANDOLPH COUNITES OF NORTHERN WEST VIRGINIA.

SINCE SOME LOCATIONS WERE HIT BY 2 OR 3 SEPARATE
STORMS BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND 2 AM...LOCALIZED RAINFALL AMOUNTS
OF OVER AN INCH WERE LIKELY.

COUNTY AND STATE POLICE IN THE REGION WERE NOT AWARE OF ANY
SERIOUS WATER PROBLEMS AT 2 AM.  YET...DUE TO THE HOUR AND
THE TERRAIN...SMALL STREAMS MAY IN THIS REGION MAY BE NEAR BANKFULL.

THESE STORMS SHOULD EXIT THE BARBOUR AND TUCKER COUNTY REGION
BY 3 AM...AS THEY TRAVEL INTO THE POTOMAC HIGHLANDS.

ANOTHER GROUP OF THUNDERSTOMRS WAS CROSSING THE OHIO RIVER
AROUND NEW MARTINSVILLE.  HOPEFULLY...THESE STORMS WILL TRACK
EAST TO THE FAIRMONT/MORGANTOWN REGION BY 3 AM...AND REMAIN
NORTH OF ARyEAS THAT WERE HIT WITH DOWNPOURS BETWEEN MIDNIGHT
AND 2 AM.

END/BATTY

The office that day

Everything else NWS Charleston, WV issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Aug 23, 5:27 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXRandolph2 hr
Aug 23, 8:37 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXUpshur3 hr
Aug 23, 8:37 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXLewis2 hr
Aug 23, 9:35 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXRandolph2 hr
Aug 23, 11:44 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXRandolph, Upshur2 hr
Aug 23, 4:25 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningRLXBraxton, Webster3 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in West Virginia, 1989Every flash flood warning in 1989

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive.