Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Flash Flood Warnings in 1996

Flash Flood Warning 193, NWS Cleveland, OH

September 17, 1996Erie County, Pennsylvania

NWS Cleveland, OH issued this flash flood warning at Sep 17, 1996, 8:55 PM EDT for Erie County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 3 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: Sep 17, 1996, 8:55 PM EDT (00:55 UTC)
Expired: Sep 18, 1996, 12:00 AM EDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Cleveland, OH
Area: Whole counties

County Erie County, PA

The radar

The Buffalo radar (KBUF), 145 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:56 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

Buffalo Intl Airport, NY (KBUF), launched 00:00Z, 0.9 hours before the alert went out and 146 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: 56 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 562 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -33 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 KCLE 180053
FFWCLE
PAC049-180400-
 
FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH
855 PM EDT TUE SEP 17 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CLEVELAND HAS DOWNGRADED THE FLASH FLOOD
WARNING TO A FLOOD WARNING FOR URBAN AREAS AND SMALL STREAMS
EFFECTIVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN  PENNSYLVANIA
 
   ...ERIE COUNTY
 
DOPPLER RADAR AT 855 PM WAS SHOWING SCATTERED SHOWERS ACROSS THE COUNTY.
THIS ADDITIONAL RAINFALL SHOULD NOT ADD TO THE FLOODING PROBLEMS.
 
MOST OF THE FLOODING THAT WAS STILL OCCURRING WAS IN THE MILL CREEK
TOWNSHIP AREA. HOWEVER IN THE MILL CREEK TOWNSHIP AREA AND ELSEWHERE IN
THE COUNTY...THE WATER WILL SLOWLY RECEDE FROM ANY STREAMS
THAT ARE OUT OF THEIR BANKS OR ROADS THAT ARE FLOODED.
 
NUMEROUS BASEMENTS AND SOME BUILDINGS WERE FLOODED ACROSS THE COUNTY.
 
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.
 
KIELTYKA
 
&

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

Local storm report, Sep 17, 3:15 PM EDT, 5 hours 40 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OHIO
314 PM EDT TUE SEP 17 1996

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....
1115 AM    ERIE                      PA   FLOODING
09/17/96   ERIE                           FLOODING AT PARADISE AND
                                          PEACH STREETS AND SOME
                                          BASEMENT FLOODING

1115 AM    ERIE                      PA   FLOODING
09/17/96   ERIE                           SOME STREETS BEING CLOSED
                                          DUE TO FLOODING IN MILL
                                          CREEK TWSHP

1130 AM    ERIE                      PA   FLOODING
09/17/96   ERIE                           12TH STREET FLOODED

1155 AM    ERIE                      PA   FLOODING
09/17/96   ERIE                           CARS FLOATING AWAY ON 12TH
                                          STREET

1205 PM    ERIE                      PA   FLOODING
09/17/96   ERIE                           TWO DOZEN ROADS CLOSED AND
                                          STORM SEWERS BACKED UP

1230 PM    ERIE                      PA   FLOODING
09/17/96   ERIE                           APARTMENT BUILDING AT 38TH
                                          AND ZOOK EVACUATED IN MILL
                                          CREEK

1255 PM    ERIE                      PA   FLOODING
09/17/96   ERIE                           6 BUILDINGS COLLAPSED,
                                          BASEMENTS COLLAPSED, AND
                                          PEOPLE RESCUED FROM ROOF
                                          TOPS IN MILL CREEK TWNSHP.

0115 PM    ERIE                      PA   FLOODING
09/17/96   ERIE                           MOST ROADS CLOSED MILL
                                          CREEK TWSHP AND RED CROSS
                                        L  SHELTERS OPENED. SIX
                                          INCHES OF RAIN MEASURED BY

                                          SKYWARN IN MILL CREEK.

GABRIC

The office that day

Everything else NWS Cleveland, OH issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Sep 17, 11:05 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	CLE	Erie	7 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Pennsylvania, 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.