Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Flash Flood Warnings in 1997

Flash Flood Warning 55, NWS Pittsburgh, PA

June 12, 1997Mercer County, Pennsylvania

NWS Pittsburgh, PA issued this flash flood warning at Jun 12, 1997, 3:37 PM EDT for Mercer County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 2 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: Jun 12, 1997, 3:37 PM EDT (19:37 UTC)
Expired: Jun 12, 1997, 6:00 PM EDT
In force: 2 hr
Issued by: NWS Pittsburgh, PA
Area: Whole counties

County Mercer County, PA

The radar

The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 86 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:39 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

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 12:00Z, 7.6 hours before the alert went out and 100 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: 154 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -13 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 573 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 74 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 67 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 KPIT 121937
FFWPIT
PAC085-122200-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PITTSBURGH PA
337 PM EDT THU JUN 12 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PITTSBURGH HAS ISSUED A
FLASH FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  600 PM EDT
FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN NORTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA
 
   ...MERCER COUNTY
 
AT 330 PM EDT...A NEARLY STATIONARY LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS
EXTENDED EAST-WEST ALONG THE MERCER COUNTY...CRAWFORD COUNTY LINE.
RADAR ESTIMATES THAT 1.90 INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN JUST NORTH OF
GREENVILLE BETWEEN 230 AND 330 PM.  ADDITIONAL RAINFALL IS LIKELY.
 
DO NOT DRIVE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE ROAD.  THE WATER
MAY BE TOO DEEP TO ALLOW YOUR CAR TO CR|OSS SAFELY.  VEHICLES CAUGHT
IN RISING WATER SHOULD BE ABANDONED QUICKLY.  MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND.
 
PM

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.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Jun 12, 10:36 AM EDT, 5 hours 1 minute before

MDZ001-OHZ039>041-048>050-057>059-068-069-PAZ007>009-013>016-020>023-
029>032-WVZ001>004-012-021>023-041-122200-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PITTSBURGH PA
1036 AM EDT THU JUN 12 1997

SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP THIS
AFTERNOON ACROSS WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA...EAST CENTRAL OHIO...NORTHERN
WEST VIRGINIA AND GARRETT COUNTY MARYLAND. THE SHOWER AND THUNDERSTORM
ACTIVITY WILL CONTINUE INTO THE OVERNIGHT HOURS AS A WEAK UPPER LEVEL
DISTURBANCE APPROACHES THE AREA.

...HAZARD SPECIFICS...

WINDS ALOFT ARE FAIRLY WEAK...SO THE MAIN THREAT FROM THUNDERSTORMS
THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT WILL BE HEAVY RAINFALL. SMALL HAIL COULD
ALSO ACCOMPANY SOME OF THE STRONGER STORMS. SOME OF THE
DOWNPOURS COULD BE HEAVY ENOUGH TO CAUSE WATER TO POND ON
ROADWAYS...LEADING TO TRICKY DRIVING CONDITIONS. WHILE NOT GENERALLY
EXPECTED...YOU SHOULD BE AWARE THAT RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF ABOUT 1.50
INCHES IN AN HOUR OR 2 INCHES IN A THREE HOUR TIME PERIOD WOULD BEGIN
TO CAUSE FLOODING.

THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS ARE NOT ANTICIPATED TO EXCEED 40 MPH.

SKYWARN ACTIVATION MAY BE NECESSARY LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT
AS THE THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY BEGINS.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND THE
MOST UPDATED FORECASTS.
RSH/LAG

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 12, 4:06 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	PBZ	Venango	2 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Pennsylvania, 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.