Alert archive / Rhode Island / Flash Flood Warnings in 1997

Flash Flood Warning 5, NWS Boston/Norton, MA

August 29, 1997Washington County, Rhode Island

NWS Boston/Norton, MA issued this flash flood warning at Aug 29, 1997, 3:08 PM EDT for Washington County, Rhode Island. 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: Aug 29, 1997, 3:08 PM EDT (19:08 UTC)
Expired: Aug 29, 1997, 7:15 PM EDT
In force: 4 hr
Issued by: NWS Boston/Norton, MA
Area: Whole counties

County Washington County, RI

The nearest sounding before it

Brookhaven, NY (KOKX), launched 12:00Z, 7.1 hours before the alert went out and 120 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: 653 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 546 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -4 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KBOS 291912
FFWBOS
RIC005-009-292315-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
308 PM EDT FRI AUG 29 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A
FLASH FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  715 PM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS...
 
IN SOUTH RHODE ISLAND
 
   ...NEWPORT COUNTY...WASHINGTON COUNTY
 
AT 300 PM...WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO SHOW BANDS OF
TORRENTIAL RAINFALL MOVING SOUTH ACROSS WASHINGTON AND NEWPORT COUNTIES.
RAINFALL OF AT LEAST 3 INCHES HAS ALREADY FALLEN...AND ANOTHER 2 TO 3
INCHES IS LIKELY INTO TONIGHT BEFORE THE RAINFALL DIMINISHES.  THIS WILL
LEAD TO FLOODING ALONG MANY SMALL STREAMS AND BROOKS.
 
IN ADDITION...TORRENTIAL RAINFALL OF THIS MAGNITUDE WILL CONTINUE TO
PRODUCE EXTENSIVE STREET FLOODING AS WELL AS FLOODING OF PARKING
LOTS...BALL FIELDS...BASEMENTS AND YARDS IN WASHINGTON AND NEWPORT
COUNTIES.  LOCAL DRAINAGE PONDS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE DRY WILL LIKELY
FILL QUICKLY AND OVERFLOW INTO YARDS.
 
THIS HAS BECOME A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION REGARDING ROAD TRAVEL.
TRAVEL SHOULD BE HELD OFF UNTIL THE HEAVY RAINS SUBSIDE THROUGHOUT THE
WARNING AREAS.  ROADWAYS WILL BECOME IMPASSABLE FOR PERIODS OF TIME AND
THIS WILL AFFECT NOT ONLY THE SECONDARY ROADS AND SIDE STREETS BUT ALSO
THE MAJOR HIGHWAYS IN THESE COUNTIES.
 
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.
 
MOST DEATHS IN FLASH FLOODING 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.
 
VALLEE

The office that day

Everything else NWS Boston/Norton, MA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 29, 3:08 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	BOX	Newport	4 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Rhode Island, 1997 Every flash flood warning in 1997

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.