Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 1, NWS Pittsburgh, PA

May 3, 1997Mercer County, Pennsylvania

NWS Pittsburgh, PA issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 3, 1997, 1:23 PM EDT for Mercer County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 67 min. 3 reports 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: May 3, 1997, 1:23 PM EDT (17:23 UTC)
Expired: May 3, 1997, 2:30 PM EDT
In force: 67 min
Issued by: NWS Pittsburgh, PA
Area: Whole counties

County Mercer County, PA

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
May 3, 1:27 PM EDT	Hail 0.75	Sharon, PA	One-half to three-quarter inch hail reported.
May 3, 1:45 PM EDT	Hail 0.75	Fredonia, PA	One-half to three-quarter inch hail was reported in Fredonia.
May 3, 2:18 PM EDT	Thunderstorm Wind	Farrell, PA	Severe thunderstorm winds downed about 13 trees in Farrell. Also, part of a roof was torn off of a house and two other houses sustained minor damage.

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

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 12:00Z, 5.4 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: 12 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -73 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 579 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 66 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 478 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 446 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm 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, May 3, 11:10 AM EDT, 2 hours 13 minutes before

PAZ007>009-013>016-020>023-029>032-WVZ001>004-012-021>023-041-MDZ001-
OHZ039>041-O48>050-057>059-068-069-041200-

SEVERE WEATHER POTENTIAL OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PITTSBURGH PA
1110 AM EDT SAT MAY 3 1997

...THUNDERSTORMS WITH STRONG WIND GUSTS AND POSSIBLY HAIL
   THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS THESE FOLLOWING AREAS..

EAST CENTRAL OHIO...
WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA...
EXTREME NORTHERN WEST VIRGINIA...
EXTREME WESTERN MARYLAND.

...HAZARD SPECIFICS...
BEWARE OF RAPIDLY MOVING THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON THAT CAN GENERATE
WIND GUSTS OVER 50 MPH AND SOME HAIL. THE WIND GUSTS MAY GET HIGH ENOUGH
TO CAUSE DAMAGE. THE HAIL SHOULD BE LIMITED IN SIZE BUT THE POSSIBILITY
OF SMALL HAILSTONES COVERING THE GROUND TO A DEPTH OF AN INCH OR SO
CANNOT BE RULED OUT.

REGARDING RAINFALL...ANY DOWNPOURS SHOULD BE BE BRIEF.

REGARDING LIGHTNING...THERE CAN BE CLOUD TO GROUND STROKES...WHICH OF
COURSE ARE ALWAYS DANGEROUS. BUT THESE STROKES SHOULD NOT BE FREQUENT.

...HAZARD TIMING...
THE PERIOD FOR THE MOST HEIGHTENED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WEATHER AWARENESS
ARE AS FOLLOWS...

IN EAST CENTRAL OHIO...EARLY THIS AFTERNOON...TIL AROUND 3 OR 4 PM.

IN FAR WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA AND NORTHERN WEST VIRGINIA AND WESTERN
MARYLAND...ALL AFTERNOON TIL AROUND 6 TO 7 PM.

THE FOCUS OF THE STRONGEST STORMS WILL BE WITH THE PASSAGE OF THE COLD
FRONT AND FOR UP TO ABOUT 3 HOURS AFTERWARDS AS COLD AIR ARRIVES ALOFT
TO INCREASE THE ATMOSPHERES INSTABILITY. THE TIMES OF FRONTAL PASSAGE
WILL BE AS FOLLOWS...

ZANESVILLE OH....AROUND 11 AM.
WHEELING WV AROUND 12 NOON
FRANKLIN PA...PITTSBURGH PA AND MORGANTOWN...AROUND 1 PM.
BROOKVILLE PA...LATROBE PA AND CONNELLSVILLE PA...AROUND 2 PM.
DEEP CREEK LAKE MD...AROUND 3 PM.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO FOR UPDATES FROM YOUR NATIONAL WEATHER
SERVICE.

...SKYWARN...
SKYWARN OBSERVERS...CALL IN REPORTS OF DAMAGE AND SIGNIFICANT WIND GUSTS
AND HAIL AS NEEDED.

GIORDANO/MURPHY

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 3, 1:57 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Washington	63 min
May 3, 3:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Beaver	45 min
May 3, 3:24 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Washington	51 min
May 3, 3:26 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Lawrence	49 min
May 3, 3:29 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Mercer	46 min
May 3, 3:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Allegheny, Butler	54 min
May 3, 3:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Fayette	30 min
May 3, 4:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Armstrong, Westmoreland	68 min
May 3, 4:37 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Venango	53 min
May 3, 2:31 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Muskingum	44 min
May 3, 3:04 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Columbiana, Jefferson	41 min
May 3, 3:48 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Brooke, Ohio	42 min
May 3, 3:48 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Marshall	42 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Pennsylvania, 1997 Every severe thunderstorm 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive.