Alert archive / West Virginia / Flash Flood Warnings in 1996

Flash Flood Warning 55, NWS Charleston, WV

May 17, 1996Pocahontas County, West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this flash flood warning at May 17, 1996, 3:55 AM EDT for Pocahontas County, West Virginia. It was in force for 3 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 17, 1996, 3:55 AM EDT (07:55 UTC)
Expired: May 17, 1996, 7:00 AM EDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Charleston, WV
Area: Whole counties

County Pocahontas County, WV

The radar

The Roanoke radar (KFCX), 147 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 07:55 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, 7.9 hours before the alert went out and 134 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 170755
FFWCRW
WVC075-001-097-083-171100-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
355 AM EDT FRI MAY 17 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS EXTENDED THE SMALL STREAM
FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  700 AM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...S...
 
IN EAST WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...POCAHONTAS COUNTY
 
IN NORTH CENTRAL WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...BARBOUR COUNTY...UPSHUR COUNTY
 
IN NORTHEAST WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...RANDOLPH COUNTY
 
SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCING BRIEF HEAVY RAINS CONTINUE
ACROSS THE REGION EARLY THIS MORNING. WITH EXTENSIVE FLOODING ALREADY
OCCURRING IN MANY AREAS AND MORE PRECIPITATION FALLING...WATER LEVELS
WILL CONTINUE TO RISE IN MOST AREAS THROUGH THE EARLY MORNING HOURS.
 
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.
 
 
END/JAP

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 16, 8:15 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Randolph	5 hr
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, 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.