Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 5, NWS State College, PA

July 8, 1997Tioga County, Pennsylvania

NWS State College, PA issued this tornado warning at Jul 8, 1997, 5:41 PM EDT for Tioga County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 64 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
Jul 8, 1997, 5:41 PM EDT (21:41 UTC)
Expired
Jul 8, 1997, 6:45 PM EDT
In force
64 min
Issued by
NWS State College, PA
Area
Whole counties

County Tioga County, PA

The radar

The State College radar (KCCX), 113 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:44 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

TimeReportWhereRemark
Jul 8, 6:00 PM EDTTornado F1Tioga, PA41/53/50N, 77/16/47W to 41/54N, 77/07/37W. The Elkhorn Creek tornado touched down in Tioga County around 6:00 p.m. EDT Tuesday, July 8th, about 8 miles west of the town of Tioga, just southwest of Elbridge. The storm tracked east following Elkhorn Creek for

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

Buffalo Intl Airport, NY (KBUF), launched 12:00Z, 9.7 hours before the alert went out and 175 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-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Buffalo Intl Airport, NY at 12:00Z on 1997-07-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 0 joules per kilogram.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Buffalo Intl Airport, NY at 12:00Z on 1997-07-08The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 8 square meters per square second.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
893 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
8 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
151 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.

195 
WFUS01 KCTP 082142 RRA
TORCTP
PAC117-082245-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA
541 PM EDT TUE JUL 8 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STATE COLLEGE HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  645 PM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS......
 
IN  PENNSYLVANIA
 
   ...TIOGA COUNTY
 
AT 540 PM...RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE STORM NEAR WESTFIELD IN NORTHWEST
TIOGA COUNTY. INDICATIONS ARE THAT THIS STORM MAY PRODUCE A TORNADO.
 
THE STORM IS MOVING EAST AT 25 MILES AN HOUR...AND WILL BE SOUTH OF
JACKSON SUMMIT BY 630 PM.
 
THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM SITUATION.  ACT QUICKLY.  IF YOU ARE
IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO MOVE TO A SHELTER BELOW GROUND IF
AVAILABLE.  OTHERWISE...GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST
FLOOR POSSIBLE.  AVOID WINDOWS.  ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE HOMES
FOR A REINFORCED BUILDING OR GET INTO A DITCH OR CULVERT.
 
MARTIN

The office that day

Everything else NWS State College, PA issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Jul 8, 2:30 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPWarren35 min
Jul 8, 3:34 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPMcKean76 min
Jul 8, 6:47 PM EDTTornado WarningCTPTioga43 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Pennsylvania, 1997Every tornado warning in 1997Tornadoes 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.