Alert archive / West Virginia / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 1, NWS Charleston, WV

July 2, 1997Mingo County, West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this tornado warning at Jul 2, 1997, 11:18 PM EDT for Mingo County, West Virginia. It was in force for 27 min. 2 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: Jul 2, 1997, 11:18 PM EDT (03:18 UTC)
Expired: Jul 2, 1997, 11:45 PM EDT
In force: 27 min
Issued by: NWS Charleston, WV
Area: Whole counties

County Mingo County, WV

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 74 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 03:21 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 2, 11:39 PM EDT	Thunderstorm Wind	Matewan, WV
Jul 2, 11:40 PM EDT	Hail 1.25	Baisden, WV

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 2, 8:00 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), launched 00:00Z, 3.3 hours before the alert went out and 238 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: 1249 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -137 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1159 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 47 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 153 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 255 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 2.3

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KCRW 030319 RRA
TORCRW
WVC059-030345-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
1118 PM EDT WED JUL 2 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 1145 PM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION......
 
IN SOUTHWEST WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...MINGO COUNTY
 
CHARLESTON RADAR HAS INDICATED A POSSIBLE TORNADO NEAR BELC AND MYRTLE
MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 30 MPH.
 
<< CALL TO ACTION >> THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM. ACT QUICKLY.
IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO MOVE TO A SHELTER BELOW GROUND
AVAILABLE.  OTHERWISE...GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST
FLOOR POSSIBLE.  AVOID WINDOWS.  ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE HOMES
FOR A REINFORCED BUILDING OR GET INTO A DITCH OR CULVERT.
 
 
END/SIKORA

The office that day

Everything else NWS Charleston, WV issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 2, 9:09 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Mason	51 min
Jul 2, 9:26 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Putnam	49 min
Jul 2, 9:37 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Jackson	53 min
Jul 2, 9:50 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Kanawha	55 min
Jul 2, 10:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Lincoln, Wayne	45 min
Jul 2, 10:50 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Logan	40 min
Jul 2, 11:01 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Mingo	44 min
Jul 2, 11:39 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	McDowell, Wyoming	51 min
Jul 3, 12:24 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	Mingo	3 hr
Jul 3, 12:41 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RLX	McDowell	3 hr

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in West Virginia, 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.