Alert archive / Texas / Flash Flood Warnings in 1996

Flash Flood Warning 6, NWS Brownsville, TX

October 4, 1996Cameron County, Texas

NWS Brownsville, TX issued this flash flood warning at Oct 4, 1996, 1:13 PM CDT for Cameron County, Texas. It was in force for 5 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Oct 4, 1996, 1:13 PM CDT (18:13 UTC)
Expired: Oct 4, 1996, 6:15 PM CDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: NWS Brownsville, TX
Area: Whole counties

County Cameron County, TX

The radar

The Brownsville radar (KBRO), 27 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:14 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

The nearest sounding before it

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), launched 12:00Z, 6.2 hours before the alert went out and 176 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-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

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: 67 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -34 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 607 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 83 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 65 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
TTAA00 KBRO 041814
FFWBRO
TXC061-042315-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BROWNSVILLE TX
113 PM CDT FRI OCT 4 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BROWNSVILLE HAS ISSUED A
FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  615 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS......
 
IN SOUTH TEXAS
 
   ...CAMERON COUNTY
 
...FLOOD WARNING FOR ALL OF CAMERON COUNTY UNTIL 6 PM...
 
A VERY LARGE AREA OF MODERATE TO HEAVY RAIN WAS MOVING INTO ALL OF
CAMERON COUNTY FROM THE GULF.  AN ADDITIONAL ONE TO TWO INCHES OF RAIN
IS EXPECTED FROM THIS LATEST AREA OF RAIN.  THIS PRECIPITATION FALLING
ON GROUND ALREADY SATURATED WILL CAUSE A GREAT DEAL OF RUNOFF...THUS
FLOODING IS EXPECTED OVER THE COUNTY.v
 
DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE
ROADWAY.  THE WATER DEPTH MAY BE TOO GREAT TO ALLOW YOUR CAR TO
CROSS SAFELY.  VEHICLES CAUGHT IN RISING WATER SHOULD BE
ABANDONED QUICKLY.  MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND.
 
61

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.

NWS Brownsville, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Oct 4, 9:15 AM CDT, 3 hours 58 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 4, 9:15 AM CDT, 3 hours 58 minutes before

DEEP SOUTH TEXAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BROWNSVILLE TX
915 AM CDT FRI OCT 4 1996

HVY RN BRO VCNTY THIS MRNG.  RN CONFINED MAINLY TO CAMERON AND E
HIDALGO COUNTIES SO FAR...WITH LITTLE IF ANY ELSEWHERE.  LARGE RAIN
SHIELD OVR W GULF E OF BRO.  SOME DCRS NOTED SINCE I CHECKED IN
THIS MRNG.  RN SHLD EASE ACRSS AREA INTO THIS AFTN...BUT ITS NOT
OVER YET.  LOW STILL TRYING TO ORGANIZE OVR W GULF...AND THIS
SHOULD CONT TO PRODUCE RN BANDS AND BRING THEM INLAND OVR FA.
HVST RN AT NIGHT...TYPICAL FOR TROPICAL SYSTEMS.  EVEN THO HVST RN
HAS BEEN CONFINED TO THE LWR VLY...SHOULD CONSIDER FFA FOR INLAND
AREAS.  CONT CFA.

WL LIKELY RMV MENTION OF WINDY IN UPDATE AS DO NOT REALLY SEE MUCH
TO CREATE ANY WIND.  BLV ARND 15 MPH SHLD SUFFICE.  MAY ALSO TRIM
AFTN POPS A BIT TO REFLECT DECRS IN RN AREA.  REST OF FCST GOOD.

BRO   082/073/080  50/70/70
MFE   084/070/082  40/60/70
RGC   085/068/083  40/60/70
SPI   080/072/079  50/70/70

54

The office that day

Everything else NWS Brownsville, TX issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 4, 9:01 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	BRO	Cameron	3 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Texas, 1996 Every flash flood warning in 1996

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; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.