Alert archive / West Virginia / Flash Flood Warnings in 1996

Flash Flood Warning 17, NWS Charleston, WV

May 5, 1996Kanawha County, West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this flash flood warning at May 5, 1996, 5:25 PM EDT for Kanawha County, West Virginia. 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: May 5, 1996, 5:25 PM EDT (21:25 UTC)
Expired: May 5, 1996, 9:30 PM EDT
In force: 4 hr
Issued by: NWS Charleston, WV
Area: Whole counties

County Kanawha County, WV

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 17 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:28 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

Roanoke, VA (KRNK), launched 12:00Z, 9.4 hours before the alert went out and 219 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: 62 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -304 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1026 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 84 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 114 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 KCRW 052127
FFWCRW
WVC039-060130-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
525 PM EDT SUN MAY 5 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A
FLASH FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  930 PM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION......
 
IN WEST CENTRAL WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...KANAWHA COUNTY
 
DOPPLER WEATHER RADAR WAS ESTIMATING THAT 1 TO 1.5 INCHES OF RAIN HAS
FALLEN ACROSS PORTIONS OF KANAWHA COUNTY IN THE PAST HOUR. WITH MORE
THUNDERSTORMS MOVING TOWARDS THE COUNTY...ADDITIONAL RAINFALL WILL CUASE
CREEKS AND STREAMS TO RISE RAPIDLY TO NEAR AND JUST OVER BANKFUL IN THE
NEXT 1 TO 3 HOURS.
 
BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HAbRDER TO RECOGNIZE
THE DANGERS OF FLOODS AND FLASH FLOODS.  IF FLASH FLOODING IS
OBSERVED...ACT QUICKLY.  MOVE UP TO ESCAPE FLOOD WATERS.  DO
NOT STAY IN AREAS SUBJECT TO FLOODING WHEN WATER BEGINS RISING.
 
 
SITES

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 4, 10:27 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Barbour, Harrison	6 hr
May 4, 10:27 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Lewis	6 hr
May 5, 3:43 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	McDowell	47 min
May 5, 4:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	McDowell	15 min
May 5, 4:55 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Boone, Kanawha	50 min
May 5, 4:59 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Lincoln	16 min
May 5, 5:11 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Raleigh	49 min
May 5, 5:18 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Fayette	42 min
May 5, 7:26 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Boone	4 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in West Virginia, 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.