Alert archive / Texas / Flash Flood Warnings in 1997

Flash Flood Warning 1, NWS Lake Charles, LA

January 27, 1997Hardin County, Texas

NWS Lake Charles, LA issued this flash flood warning at Jan 27, 1997, 8:31 PM CST for Hardin County, Texas. It was in force for 3 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: Jan 27, 1997, 8:31 PM CST (02:31 UTC)
Expired: Jan 27, 1997, 11:30 PM CST
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Lake Charles, LA
Area: Whole counties

County Hardin County, TX

The radar

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 115 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:33 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

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), launched 00:00Z, 2.5 hours before the alert went out and 117 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: 1472 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 733 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 114 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 131 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.7
Supercell composite: 5.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KLCH 280232
FFWLCH
TXC199-280530-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
831 PM CST MON JAN 27 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAKE CHARLES HAS ISSUED A
FLASH FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 1130 PM CST
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN SOUTHEAST TEXAS
 
   ...HARDIN COUNTY
 
AT 825 PM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
THAT 2 TO 3 INCHES OF RAIN HAVE FALLEN ACROSS HARDIN COUNTY.
AN ADDITIONAL 2 TO 3 INCHES OF RAIN IS POSSIBLE THIS EVENING
AS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS APPROACH FROM THE SOUTHWEST.
THIS WILL LIKELY CAUSE FLOODING OF LOW LYING AREAS AND SMALL
STREAMS.
 
BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER TO RECOGNIZE
THE DANGERS OF FLOODS AND FLASH FLOODS.  IF FLASH FLOODING IS
OBSERVED...ACT QUICKLY.  MOVE UP TO ESCAPE FLOOD WATERS.  DO
NOT STAY IN AREAS SUBJECT TO FLOODING WHEN WATER BEGINS RISING.

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.

NWS Lake Charles, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Jan 27, 7:42 PM CST, 49 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 27, 7:42 PM CST, 49 minutes before

SOUTHEAST TEXAS..SOUTHWEST AND CENTRAL LOUISIANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
740 PM CST MON JAN 27 1997

CLD FNT FM LFK TO CLL AND BEGINNING TO PICKUP IN FORWARD MOMENTUM.
SAT PIX CONTS TO SHOW TSRA BACKBUILDING OVR THE HOU AREA WITH
DIFFLUENT TKNS PATTERN. IN ADDTN A FEW CELLS HAVE SHOWN TORNADIC
STRUCTURE EVEN THO UNDIRECTIONAL WIND PROFILE. LARGE CAPE/WEAKLY
SHEARED ENVRIONMENT AND DRY MID LVLS WL BE CONDUCIVE FOR HAIL AND
WIND DAMAGE UP TO FNTL PASG. USING EXTRAPOLATION WL BRING FNT
INTO BPT AT 04Z...LCH/AEX 05Z...AND LFT 07Z. XPCT MAINLY RAIN AFTER
MIDNIGHT WITH UPPR TROF LAGGING BACK OVR CNTRL TX. WL ALSO NEED TO
WATCH FOR FFW POTENTIAL WITH FFG AOB 2.0 INCHES.

5

The office that day

Everything else NWS Lake Charles, LA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 27, 8:11 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Jasper	34 min
Jan 27, 8:26 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Hardin	49 min

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Texas, 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; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.