Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1996

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 18, NWS Pittsburgh, PA

April 15, 1996Butler County, Pennsylvania

NWS Pittsburgh, PA issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Apr 15, 1996, 7:03 PM EDT for Butler County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 42 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Apr 15, 1996, 7:03 PM EDT (23:03 UTC)
Expired: Apr 15, 1996, 7:45 PM EDT
In force: 42 min
Issued by: NWS Pittsburgh, PA
Area: Whole counties

County Butler County, PA

The radar

The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 49 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:04 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

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 12:00Z, 11.1 hours before the alert went out and 58 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: 1490 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 46 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 519 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 505 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Apr 15, 3:52 PM EDT, 3 hours 11 minutes before

PAZ007-008-013-014-020>022-029>032-WVZ001>004-012-021>023-041-
OHZ039>041-048>050-057>059-068-069-160200-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT - TORNADO WATCH TIL 10 PM.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PITTSBURGH PA
355 PM EDT MON APR 15 1996

...TORNADO WATCH TIL 10 PM FOR EXTREME WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA...NORTHERN
WEST VIRGINIA AND EAST CENTRAL OHIO...

A TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES...
IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA...
ALLEGHENY... ARMSTRONG... BEAVER... BUTLER... FAYETTE... GREENE...
LAWRENCE... MERCER... VENANGO... WASHINGTON... AND WESTMORELAND.

IN WEST VIRGINIA...
BROOKE... HANCOCK... MARION... MARSHALL... MONONGALIA...
OHIO... PRESTON... TUCKER... AND WETZEL.

IN EAST CENTRAL OHIO...
BELMONT... CARROLL... COLUMBIANA... COSHOCTON... GUERNSEY...
HARRISON... JEFFERSON... MONROE... MUSKINGUM... NOBLE...
AND TUSCARAWAS.

A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR TORNADOES AND SEVERE
THUNDERSTORMS IN AND C:LOSE TO THE WATCH AREA PERSONS IN THESE AREAS FOR
THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND
POSSIBLE WARNINGS.

BE PREPARED TO TAKE COVER INDOORS AWAY FROM WINDOWS ON THE LOWEST
POSSIBLE FLOOR.

Special weather statement, Apr 15, 7:01 PM EDT, 2 minutes before

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The office that day

Everything else NWS Pittsburgh, PA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 15, 6:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Beaver, Washington	45 min
Apr 15, 6:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Greene, Washington	54 min
Apr 15, 6:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Allegheny	54 min
Apr 15, 6:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Mercer	54 min
Apr 15, 5:54 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Belmont	51 min
Apr 15, 6:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Brooke	45 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Pennsylvania, 1996 Every severe thunderstorm 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.