Alert archive / West Virginia / Tornado Warnings in 1996

Tornado Warning 8, NWS Charleston, WV

June 22, 1996Ritchie County, West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this tornado warning at Jun 22, 1996, 3:04 PM EDT for Ritchie County, West Virginia. It was in force for 41 min. 1 report came from inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued: Jun 22, 1996, 3:04 PM EDT (19:04 UTC)
Expired: Jun 22, 1996, 3:45 PM EDT
In force: 41 min
Issued by: NWS Charleston, WV
Area: Whole counties

County Ritchie County, WV

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 112 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:03 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.

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
Jun 22, 3:15 PM EDT	Hail 0.75	Pike, WV

NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.

The nearest sounding before it

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), launched 12:00Z, 7.1 hours before the alert went out and 237 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: 369 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -184 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1135 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 135 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 141 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 1.3

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KCRW 221903
TORCRW
WVC085-221945-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
304 PM EDT SAT JUN 22 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  345 PM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION......
 
IN NORTHWEST WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...RITCHIE COUNTY
 
AT 300 PM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR WAS DETECTING A POSSIBLE
TORNADO ALONG THE RITCHIE/PLEASANTS COUNTY LINE NEAR THE TOWNS OF COMBS
AND FINCH. THE STORM WAS TRACKING SOUTHEAST AT 40 MILES AN HOUR. THE
POSSIBLE TORNADIC STORM WILL MOVE INTO THE ELLENBORO AREA ALONG ROUTE 16
AT AROUND 320 PM.
 
 
IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...THE SAFEST PLACE IS A
BASEMENT.  GET UNDER A WORKBENCH OR PIECE OF STURDY FURNITURE.
IF NO BASEMENT IS AVAILABLE...SEEK SHELTER IN AN INTERIOR ROOM
SUCH AS A CLOSET ON THE LOWEST FLOOR.  USE BLANKETS...PILLOWS...
OR CUSHIONS TO COVER YOUR BODY.  AVOID WINDOWS.
 
r

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 22, 2:33 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Pleasants	42 min
Jun 22, 2:50 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Ritchie	55 min
Jun 22, 4:29 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Calhoun	31 min
Jun 22, 4:38 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Braxton	67 min
Jun 22, 5:20 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Wood	25 min
Jun 22, 5:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Nicholas	60 min
Jun 22, 5:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Cabell	60 min
Jun 22, 5:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Roane	39 min
Jun 22, 5:49 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Ritchie, Wood	56 min
Jun 22, 5:57 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Clay, Kanawha, Putnam	48 min
Jun 22, 6:55 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Lincoln	65 min
Jun 22, 7:47 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Lincoln, Logan	58 min
Jun 22, 7:53 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Cabell, Wayne	37 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in West Virginia, 1996 Every tornado warning in 1996 Tornadoes 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.