Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 7, NWS State College, PA

July 18, 1997Clinton County, Pennsylvania

NWS State College, PA issued this tornado warning at Jul 18, 1997, 4:44 PM EDT for Clinton County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 36 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 18, 1997, 4:44 PM EDT (20:44 UTC)
Expired: Jul 18, 1997, 5:20 PM EDT
In force: 36 min
Issued by: NWS State College, PA
Area: Whole counties

County Clinton County, PA

The radar

The State College radar (KCCX), 46 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:47 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
Jul 18, 4:50 PM EDT	Thunderstorm Wind 51	Rauchtown, PA	Trees were down along Route 880 near Rauchtown.

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 watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Jul 18, 1:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Buffalo Intl Airport, NY (KBUF), launched 12:00Z, 8.7 hours before the alert went out and 208 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: 7 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -94 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1353 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 132 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KCTP 182044 RRA
TORCTP
PAC035-182120-

BULLETIN- EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA
444 PM EDT FRI JUL 18 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STATE COLLEGE PA HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 520 PM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA

   ...CLINTON COUNTY
 
AT 443 PM EDT...A POSSIBLE TORNADO WAS INDICATED BY STATE COLLEGE
DOPPLER RADAR 3 MILES EAST OF LOCK HAVEN MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 25 MPH.

THE STORM CONTAINING THE TORNADO WILL PASS NEAR...
RAVENSBURG STATE PARK             BY 455 PM EDT
LOGANTON                          BY 455 PM EDT
CARROLL                           BY 505 PM EDT
 
SEVERAL SIGHTINGS OF FUNNELS AND TORNADOES HAVE BEEN REPORTED
WITH THIS STORM.

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 18, 3:02 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Cameron, McKean, Potter	58 min
Jul 18, 3:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Clinton	65 min
Jul 18, 3:56 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Bedford	79 min
Jul 18, 4:01 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	McKean, Potter	79 min
Jul 18, 4:24 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Cameron	61 min
Jul 18, 4:32 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Clinton, Lycoming	63 min
Jul 18, 4:35 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Cambria	65 min
Jul 18, 4:58 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Columbia, Montour, Northumberland	62 min
Jul 18, 4:58 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Union	62 min
Jul 18, 5:07 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	CTP	Union	48 min
Jul 18, 5:50 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Schuylkill	60 min
Jul 18, 5:59 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Centre, Clearfield	61 min
Jul 18, 6:34 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Mifflin	46 min
Jul 18, 6:50 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Juniata	45 min
Jul 18, 7:04 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	CTP	Perry	46 min
Jul 18, 7:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Cambria	50 min
Jul 18, 7:31 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Cumberland, Dauphin	64 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Pennsylvania, 1997 Every tornado warning in 1997 Tornadoes 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.