Alert archive / West Virginia / Flash Flood Warnings in 1996

Flash Flood Warning 91, NWS Charleston, WV

July 2, 1996Harrison County, West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this flash flood warning at Jul 2, 1996, 9:42 PM EDT for Harrison 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: Jul 2, 1996, 9:42 PM EDT (01:42 UTC)
Expired: Jul 3, 1996, 1:45 AM EDT
In force: 4 hr
Issued by: NWS Charleston, WV
Area: Whole counties

County Harrison County, WV

The radar

The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 139 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:46 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 00:00Z, 1.7 hours before the alert went out and 127 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: 1704 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -15 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 919 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 58 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -43 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 16 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: -0.3
Supercell composite: -1.6

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KCRW 030142
FFWCRW
WVC033-030545-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
942 PM EDT TUE JUL 2 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A
FLASH FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  145 AM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION......
 
IN NORTH CENTRAL WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...HARRISON COUNTY
 
AT 930 PM WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED STRONG TO SEVERE
THUNDERSTORMS MOVING ACROSS THE AREA. AN AUTOMATIC RAIN GUAGE
IN SOUTHWESTERN HARRISON COUNTY HAS INDICATED 1.02 INCHES OF RAINFALL BE
E900 AND 915 PM. MORE HEAVY RAIN IS EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT HOUR FROM
THUNDERSTORMS MOVING ACROSS THE COUNTY.
 
THIS ADDITIONAL HEAVY RAINFALL WILL LIKELY CAUSE FLASH FLOODING  ON SOME
SMALL STEAMS. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE IN AREAS THAT EXPERIENCED
HEAVY RAINFALL EARLIER THIS EVENING.
 
A FLASH FLOOD WARNING MEANS THAT FLOODING IS OCCURRING OR IS
IMMINENT.  MOST FLASH FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR IN AUTOMOBILES.  DO NOT
ATTEMPT TO CROSS BRIDGES...DIPS...OR LOW SPOTS IF WATER COVERS
THE ROADWAY.  NEVER TRY TO CROSS A FLOWING STREAM...EVEN A SMALL
ONE...ON FOOT.  TO ESCAPE RISING WATER MOVE UP TO HIGHER GROUND.
 
ZINN

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

Local storm report, Jul 2, 9:17 PM EDT, 25 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
914 PM EDT TUE JUL 02 1996

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0740 PM    CLARKSBURG                WV   .75 INCH HAIL
07/02/96   HARRISON                       CLARKSBURG TV STATION
                                          REPORTED OVER DIME SIZE
                                          HAIL WITH WINDS IN EXCESS
                                          OF 50 MPH WITH ROAD SIGNS
                                          DOWN ALONG WITH TREES AND
                                          POWER OUT IN AREA.

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 2, 8:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Doddridge	39 min
Jul 2, 9:11 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Harrison	34 min
Jul 2, 9:27 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Lewis	33 min
Jul 2, 9:42 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Upshur	33 min
Jul 2, 11:53 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Cabell	37 min
Jul 3, 1:22 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Kanawha	38 min
Jul 3, 1:53 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Fayette, Nicholas	37 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.