Alert archive / South Carolina / Flash Flood Warnings in 1996

Flash Flood Warning 5, NWS Charleston, SC

October 8, 1996Berkeley County, Dorchester County, South Carolina

NWS Charleston, SC issued this flash flood warning at Oct 8, 1996, 4:19 AM EDT for Berkeley County, Dorchester County, South Carolina. 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 8, 1996, 4:19 AM EDT (08:19 UTC)
Expired: Oct 8, 1996, 9:15 AM EDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: NWS Charleston, SC
Area: Whole counties

Counties Berkeley County, SC, Dorchester County, SC

The radar

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 97 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 08:21 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

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 00:00Z, 8.3 hours before the alert went out and 31 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 553 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 57 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 375 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 825 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 KCHS 080821
FFWCHS
SCC015-035-081315-
 
BULLETIN - EBS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON SC
419 AM EDT TUE OCT 8 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A
FLASH FLOOD WARNING      EFFECTIVE UNTIL  915 AM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS...
 
IN  SOUTH CAROLINA
 
   ...BERKELEY COUNTY...DORCHESTER COUNTY
 
VERY HEAVY RAINS HAVE AFFECTED PORTIONS OF DORCHESTER AND BERKELEY
COUNTIES...ESPECIALLY SOUTHERN SECTIONS CLOSER TO THE CHARLESTON AREA
SUCH AS SUMMERVILLE...GOOSE CREEK AND CAINHOY.  THIS WILL RESULT IN
SERIOUS FLOODING OF PRONE LOW-LYING AREAS THROUGH 900 AM.
 
A FLASH FLOOD WARNING MEANS THAT FLOODING IS OCCURRING OR IS
IMMINENT.  MOST FLASH FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR IN AUTOMOBILES.  DO NOT
ATTEMPT TO CROSS BRIDGES...DIPS...OR LOW SPOTS IF WATER COVERS
THE ROADWAY.  NEVER TRY TO CROSS A FLOWING STREAM...EVEN A SMALL
ONE...ON FOOT.  TO ESCAPE RISING WATER MOVE UP TO HIGHER GROUNDv.

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 Charleston, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Oct 8, 3:15 AM EDT, 1 hour 4 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 8, 3:15 AM EDT, 1 hour 4 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON SC
310 AM EDT TUE OCT 8 1996

HAVEN'T HAD MUCH TIME TO PICK APART MODELS THIS AM. FEW WARNINGS AND
UPDATES FROM WATCH AND MULTIPLE MESOS ON 88D MAKING FOR A FUN MORNING.
ANYHOW...LARGE AREA PCPN WITH ISOLD TSTMS CONT TO MAKE RAPID PROGRESS
NWRD. SOME HEAVY DOWNPOURS AND HAVE DEBATED FFW (PROBABLY INEVITABLE)
FOR FEW COUNTIES WITH RADAR ESTIMATES AOA 3 INCHES APPROACHING CSTL
COUNTIES. FROM KJGX AND KJAX 88D'S...WESTERN EXTENT OF PCPN NR THE WRN
EDGE OF CWA. WARM FRONT MOVING NWRD ALONG THE COAST AS CENTER OF
JOSEPHINE NR OR ENTERING GA PORTION OF CWA.

CAE...GOT PRELIM PKG. ZFP FINE BUT WINDS ON CWF POSS BUMPED UP ANOTHER
5x KTS WITH LATEST OBS FOR MORNING TIMEFRAME...DIRECTION CAN BE A PROB
WITH TRACK OF JOSEPHINE AND POSITION OF FRONT...BUT PRELIM FINE AS IS.
OTHERWISE POPS AND EVERYTHING ELSE LUKS GOOD FROM HERE. SORRY SO LATE.

MJR

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 8, 1:55 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Charleston	50 min
Oct 8, 2:30 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Beaufort	30 min
Oct 8, 3:23 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Colleton, Dorchester	37 min
Oct 8, 3:38 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	CHS	Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton	5 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in South Carolina, 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.