Alert archive / West Virginia / Flash Flood Warnings in 1996

Flash Flood Warning 49, NWS Charleston, WV

May 16, 1996Randolph County, West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this flash flood warning at May 16, 1996, 8:15 PM EDT for Randolph County, West Virginia. It was in force for 5 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 16, 1996, 8:15 PM EDT (00:15 UTC)
Expired: May 17, 1996, 1:00 AM EDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: NWS Charleston, WV
Area: Whole counties

County Randolph County, WV

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 169 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:16 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 00:00Z, 0.3 hours before the alert went out and 178 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: 1112 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -15 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 745 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 94 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 135 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.5
Supercell composite: 2.3

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KCRW 170017
FFWCRW
WVC083-170500-
 
BULLETIN
SMALL STREAM FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
815 PM EDT THU MAY 16 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A
FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  100 AM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION......
 
IN NORTHEAST WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...RANDOLPH COUNTY
 
VERY HEAVY RAIN HAS BEEN FALLING OVER HARRISON AND BARBOUR COUNTIES
DURING THE LAST ONE TO ONE AND A HALF HOURS AND STREAM FLOODING IS
OCCURRING THERE. THIS RAIN IS MOVING INTO RANDOLPH COUNTY AT THIS TIME
AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN MAY BE EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT ONE TO TWO HOURS.
 
WITH SMALL STEAMS ALREADY NEAR BANKFULL OR OVERFLOWING...MORE SERIOUS
FLOODING WILL LIKELY OCCURE AS A RESULT OF THIS EXPECTED RAINFALL.
 
BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER 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.
 
ZINN
&

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 16, 8:24 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Lewis, Upshur	4 hr
May 16, 8:30 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Pocahontas	4 hr
May 16, 11:54 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Pocahontas, Randolph, Upshur	5 hr
May 17, 12:03 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Barbour, Harrison	4 hr
May 17, 3:55 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Barbour, Randolph, Upshur	3 hr
May 17, 3:55 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Pocahontas	3 hr
May 17, 6:49 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Barbour, Pocahontas, Randolph, Upshur	3 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.