Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Flash Flood Warnings in 1996
Flash Flood Warning 129, NWS State College, PA
NWS State College, PA issued this flash flood warning at Aug 9, 1996, 4:27 PM EDT for Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 2 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
- Aug 9, 1996, 4:27 PM EDT (20:27 UTC)
- Expired
- Aug 9, 1996, 6:30 PM EDT
- In force
- 2 hr
- Issued by
- NWS State College, PA
- Area
- Whole counties
County Lancaster County, PA
The radar
The Dover AFB radar (KDOX), 152 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:29 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
Phillips Aaf/Abe, MD (KAPG), launched 12:00Z, 8.5 hours before the alert went out and 65 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 151 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -43 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 870 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 13 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 50 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 94 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
000 TTAA00 KCTP 092028 FFWCTP PAC071-092230- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED FLASH FLOOD WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA 427 PM EDT FRI AUG 9 1996 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STATE COLLEGE HAS ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 630 PM EDT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS...... IN PENNSYLVANIA ...LANCASTER COUNTY FLOODING HAS BEEN REPORTED AROUND QUARRYVILLE IN SOUTHERN LANCASTER COUNTY. BETWEEN 2 AND 4 FEET OF WATER COVERS SOME ROADS...AND TWO MUD SLIDES HAVE BEEN REPORTED. THE RAIN SHOULD TAPER OFF BY 530 PM...BUT ADDITIONAL FLOODING IS LIKELY DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF HOURS. 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. MARTIN &
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 State College, PA wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Aug 9, 2:24 PM EDT, 2 hours 3 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Aug 9, 2:24 PM EDT, 2 hours 3 minutes before
CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA 220 PM EDT FRI AUG 9 1996 ...ZONE SUGGESTIONS... ...PIT/PHL...NO SIG CHANGES. ...DISCUSSION... FRONT FINALLY CLEARING ERN CTP ZONES WITH LAST OF THE PRECIP STILL JUST SE OF A GETTYSBURG TO HARRISBURG LINE. SATELLITE SHOWS CLOUDS MOVING SOUTHEAST WITH FAIR WX CU POPPING UP IN STRONG AUG SUNSHINE. MODELS HAVE BEEN PRETTY GOOD IN DEPICTING SLOW WAVY NATURE OF FRONT AS IT SLIDES OVER SE SXNS. NEW GRIDDS TAKE STRONG RIGHT REAR THERMALLY DIRECT QUAD OF JET UP INTO ERN CANADA ALLOWING FRONT TO FINALLY MEANDER EAST AND HIGH PRESSURE TO BUILD INTO REGION. DEWPOINTS IN THE 50S UPSTREAM SHOULD PROVIDE SOME MEASURE OF RELIEF FROM HIGH HUMIDITY THRU WEEKEND. HOWEVER GOOD RAD COOLING AT NIGHT COULD DROP MINS NEAR DEWPOINTS MAKING SITUATION RIPE FOR PATCHY EARLY MORNING FOG. A LOOK UPSTREAM SHOWS LOW CLOUDS COOKING UP QUITE NICELY OVER MI/WI WHICH CAUSES SOME CONCERN FOR AMOUNT OF SUN TMRW. LOOKING AT SFC DEWPOINTS AND 850 TEMPS TMRW SUGGESTS SOME POTENTIAL FOR CLOUDING UP DURG LATE MORNING EARLY AFTERNOON...MAINLY UP NORTH. STILL LOOKS LIKE A NICE WEEKEND BEFORE NEXT WX BEGINS TO AFFECT REGION TWD MID WEEK...WHEN MRF AND ECMWF START TO MAKE THINGS INTERESTING. BOTH MODELS HINT AT SHORTWAVE TROF DEEPENING TWD GR LAKES AND EVENTUALLY INTO LOCAL AREA COINCIDING WITH WARM CORE LOW LEVEL SYSTEM RIDING WESTERN PERIPHERY OF BERMUDA HIGH UP ALONG ERN SEA BOARD. LA CORTE
In the hours before
Special weather statement, Aug 9, 4:18 PM EDT, 9 minutes before
PAZ066-100015- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT - HEAVY RAIN NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA 418 PM EDT FRI AUG 9 1996 ...HEAVY RAIN WILL SLOWLY MOVE OUT OF LANCASTER COUNTY... HEAVY RAIN HAS FALLEN ACROSS PORTIONS OF LANCASTER COUNTY THIS AFTERNOON. SHOWERS AND STORMS SHOULD MOVE EAST OF LANCASTER COUNTY BY 530 PM. SOME POOR DRAINAGE FLOODING AND PONDING OF WATER ON ROADS IS POSSIBLE. MARTIN
The office that day
Everything else NWS State College, PA issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 9, 6:27 PM EDT | Flash Flood Warning | CTP | Lancaster | 3 hr |
Nearby
Flash Flood Warnings in Pennsylvania, 1996Every 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.