Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 108, NWS Philadelphia/Mount Holly

August 16, 1997Berks County, Pennsylvania

NWS Philadelphia/Mount Holly issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Aug 16, 1997, 4:11 PM EDT for Berks County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 44 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Aug 16, 1997, 4:11 PM EDT (20:11 UTC)
Expired: Aug 16, 1997, 4:55 PM EDT
In force: 44 min
Issued by: NWS Philadelphia/Mount Holly
Area: Whole counties

County Berks County, PA

The radar

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 139 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:10 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 watch it was issued in

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

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Aug 16, 3:00 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), launched 12:00Z, 8.2 hours before the alert went out and 206 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: 509 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -128 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1391 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 63 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 69 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KPHL 162010 RRA
SVRPHL
PAC011-077-095-162055-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PHILADELPHIA/MOUNT HOLLY NJ
411 PM EDT SAT AUG 16 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MOUNT HOLLY NJ HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 455 PM EDT FOR PEOPLE IN
THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN  PENNSYLVANIA

   ...NORTHERN BERKS COUNTY
   ...LEHIGH COUNTY
   ...NORTHAMPTON COUNTY

AT 405 PM...DOPPLER RADAR WAS TRACKAING A LINE OF STRONG
THUNDERSTORMS THROUGH NORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA. THESE STORM HAVE
HAD A HISTORY OF DOWNING TREES AND HAIL. THE STORMS WILL BE 
ENTERING THE ABOVE COUNTIES VERY SHORTLY.
 
THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM. MOVE INSIDE A STRONG BUILDING AND DO NOT
STAND NEAR WINDOWS. FOR YOUR PROTECTION MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON
THE LOWEST FLOOR OF YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS.

FOR THE LATEST STORM INFORMATION...PLEASE TUNE TO NOAA WEATHER
RADIO...YOUR LOCAL RADIO OR TELEVISION STATIONS...OR YOUR CABLE
TELEVISION OUTLET.

/JAE

The office that day

Everything else NWS Philadelphia/Mount Holly issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 16, 3:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Carbon, Monroe	40 min
Aug 16, 4:11 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Lehigh, Northampton	44 min
Aug 16, 5:02 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Bucks	63 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.