Alert archive / Louisiana / Flash Flood Warnings in 1996

Flash Flood Warning 14, NWS Lake Charles, LA

October 24, 1996Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana

NWS Lake Charles, LA issued this flash flood warning at Oct 24, 1996, 9:51 PM CDT for Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. It was in force for 4 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 24, 1996, 9:51 PM CDT (02:51 UTC)
Expired: Oct 25, 1996, 2:00 AM CDT
In force: 4 hr
Issued by: NWS Lake Charles, LA
Area: Whole counties

County Calcasieu Parish, LA

The radar

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 18 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:54 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

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), launched 00:00Z, 2.9 hours before the alert went out and 19 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: 1182 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 56 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 226 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 392 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KLCH 250255
FFWLCH
LAC019-250700-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
951 PM CDT THU OCT 24 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAKE CHARLES HAS ISSUED A
FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  200 AM CDT FOR PEOPLE IN
THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA
 
   ...CALCASIEU PARISH
 
AT 945 PM CDT...NEXRAD DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED THAT PORTIONS OF
CALCASIEU PARISH HAVE RECEIVED AS MUCH AS 4 INCHES OF RAIN THIS
EVENING. THE LAKE CHARLES POLICE DEPARTMENT REPORTS THAT SEVERAL
CARS HAVE BEEN FLOODED THROUGHOUT THE LAKE CHARLES AREA. AN ADDITIONAL
TWO INCHES OF RAIN IS POSSIBLE DURING THE REMAINDER OF THE NIGHT AS
THUNDERSTORMS WITH HEAVY RAIN CONTINUE TO MOVE ACROSS SOUTHWEST
LOUISIANA OFF OF THE GULF.
 
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
AB8ANDONED QUICKLY.  MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND.

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 Lake Charles, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Oct 24, 1:49 PM CDT, 8 hours 2 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 24, 1:49 PM CDT, 8 hours 2 minutes before

SOUTHEAST TEXAS..SOUTHWEST AND CENTRAL LOUISIANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
148 PM CDT THU OCT 24 1996

SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS MOVING INTO SOUTHEAST TEXAS AS LOW AND MID
LEVEL MOISTURE HAS RAPIDLY MOVED IN. RIGHT REAR QUADRANT OF 300 MB JET
IN VICINITY THIS EVENING...SEVERE WEATHER IS POSSIBLE AS MOISTURE RETURNS
AND SURFACE WARM FRONT MOVES NORTH OUT OF THE GULF AS ITS FOCUS. UNTIL
THEN...CONVECTION WILL BE ELEVATED (CURRENT LI +6 WITH 1PM TEMP AND DEW
POINT BUT WILL RAPIDLY DECREASE AS DEW POINTS INCREASE WITH TIME). LOW
LEVEL JET WILL BE ENHANCED AS THE RIGHT REAR QUADRANT PUMPS IT UP...
INCREASING HELICITY VALUES TO 280 METERS SQUARED PER SECOND SQUARED...
ACCORDING TO ETA...POSSIBLY CAUSING ISOLATED SUPERCELL DEVELOPMENT. WITH
WET BULB ZERO AT 10.3 KFT...HAIL IS QUITE POSSIBLE.

THEREAFTER...AS THE H5 TROUGH OVER THE WEST CUTS OFF AND THE WARM FRONT
MOVES NORTH...A 5950 METER HIGH FORMS IN RESPONSE OVER SOUTHEAST US BY
SUNDAY. H5 HEIGHTS FORECAST OVER AREA GET SUMMERLIKE BY 48HR...THIS
COMBINED WITH LOW LEVEL FLOW OVER GULF DURING PERIOD WILL BRING LOW
TEMPERATURES BACK INTO THE 70S (RECORD HIGH MINIMUMS FOR LATE OCT).
VORT MAXES ROTATING AROUND THE CUT OFF LOW/UPPER TROF WILL BRING SCATTERED
SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS EACH DAY. TROPICAL WAVE APPROACHING CARRIBEAN
SHOULD MOVE INTO SOUTHERN GULF WITH THIS PATTERN BY DAY 4 OR 5...AND
COULD MAKE LIFE INTERESTING BY TUESDAY.

      LCH 64/76/72/80 7634              LFT 60/75/72/80 6644
      BPT 65/77/72/81 7634              AEX 57/75/67/81 6544

14/06

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Oct 24, 8:04 PM CDT, 1 hour 47 minutes before

LAZ041-TXZ215-216-250500-

URBAN AND SMALL STREAM ADVISORY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
803 PM CDT THU OCT 24 1996

...URBAN AND SMALL STREAM ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT
FOR CALCASIEU PARISH IN LOUISIANA...AND JEFFERSON
AND ORANGE COUNTIES IN TEXAS UNTIL MIDNIGHT...

AT 800 PM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR
INDICATED THAT 1 TO 3 INCHES OF RAIN HAD FALLEN ACROSS
THE AREA SINCE THIS AFTERNOON. THIS HAS CAUSED SOME FLOODING
OF LOW LYING AREAS. SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE
ACROSS THE AREA FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE EVENING HOURS WITH
AN ADDITIONAL 1 TO 3 INCHES OF RAIN POSSIBLE. THIS WILL
LIKELY CAUSE ADDITIONAL FLOODING OF LOW LYING AREAS.
MOTORIST ARE URGED TO USE EXTRA CAUTION WHEN DRIVING TONIGHT.

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.  MOV`E TO HIGHER GROUND.

The office that day

Everything else NWS Lake Charles, LA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 24, 11:21 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LCH	Jefferson Davis	2 hr
Oct 25, 7:16 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LCH	Saint Landry, Saint Martin	4 hr
Oct 25, 5:32 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LCH	Calcasieu	118 min
Oct 25, 6:30 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LCH	Allen	2 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Louisiana, 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.