Alert archive / West Virginia / Flash Flood Warnings in 1996

Flash Flood Warning 60, NWS Charleston, WV

May 27, 1996Clay County, West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this flash flood warning at May 27, 1996, 8:30 PM EDT for Clay 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 27, 1996, 8:30 PM EDT (00:30 UTC)
Expired: May 28, 1996, 12:00 AM EDT
In force: 4 hr
Issued by: NWS Charleston, WV
Area: Whole counties

County Clay County, WV

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 59 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:32 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, 0.5 hours before the alert went out and 197 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: 532 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 55 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -21 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 280032
FFWCRW
WVC005-015-280400-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
830 PM EDT MON MAY 27 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A
FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...S...
 
IN SOUTHWEST WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...BOONE COUNTY
 
IN WEST CENTRAL WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...CLAY COUNTY
 
ALTHOUGH PRECIPITATIONS HAS TEMPORARILY ENDED ACROSS MOST OF THE
REGION...CREEKS AND STREAMS ARE AT BANKFULL OR SLIGHTLY ABOVE WITH
SLIGHT RISES NOTED AS WELL AS A FEW ROADWAYS UNDER WATER. WITH WATER
STILL RUNNING OUT OF THE MOUNTAINS INTO THESE CREEKS AND STREAMS AND
MORE SHOWERS INDICATED ON RADAR...THE FLOOD WARNINGS HAVE BEEN EXTENDED.
 
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.
 
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.  MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND. WATCH OUT FOR MUD SLIDES.
 
 
JAP

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.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 27, 7:11 PM EDT, 1 hour 19 minutes before

WVZ005-006-013>015-024>026-033>037-042>046-KYZ101>103-105-272338-
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
707 PM EDT MON MAY 27 1996

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 463 HAS EXPIRED FOR THE SOUTHERN 1/2
   OF WEST VIRGINIA...

THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH THAT WAS ISSUED EARLIER THIS AFTERNOON
HAS EXPIRED. THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS HAVE MOVED TO THE EAST AND OR
DIMINISHED. A FEW SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE STILL
PR<ESENT. HOWEVER THESE THUNDERSTORMS ARE NOT SEVERE AND ARE NOT
EXPECTED TO BE SEVERE. SHOWER AND THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY WILL BE ON
THE INCREASE AFTER 8 PM EDT ACROSS THE AREA...BUT THUNDERSTORMS ARE
NOT EXPECTED TO BE SEVERE.

DANL

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 27, 8:30 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Boone	4 hr
May 28, 6:59 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Putnam	31 min
May 28, 7:13 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Cabell	32 min
May 28, 7:27 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Kanawha	63 min
May 28, 7:34 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Putnam	41 min
May 28, 7:40 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	RLX	Putnam	35 min
May 28, 7:55 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Lincoln	50 min

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.