Alert archive / West Virginia / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 2, NWS Charleston, WV

July 22, 1997Wayne County, West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this tornado warning at Jul 22, 1997, 2:36 PM EDT for Wayne County, West Virginia. It was in force for 24 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: Jul 22, 1997, 2:36 PM EDT (18:36 UTC)
Expired: Jul 22, 1997, 3:00 PM EDT
In force: 24 min
Issued by: NWS Charleston, WV
Area: Whole counties

County Wayne County, WV

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 64 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:37 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

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), launched 12:00Z, 6.6 hours before the alert went out and 186 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: 869 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -62 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 619 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 109 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 156 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 KCRW 221836 RRA
TORCRW
WVC099-221900-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
236 PM EDT TUE JUL 22 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  300 PM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION......
 
IN WEST WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...WAYNE COUNTY
 
AT 235 PM TWO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS MERGED OVER WAYNE COUNTY. A TORNADO
WAS INDICATED ON DOPPLER RADAR NEAR GILKERSON. THE THUNDERSTORM WAS
MOVING TO THE EAST AT 5 TO 10 MPH.  TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY.
 
 
<< CALL TO ACTION >> IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...
THE SAFEST PLACE IS A BASEMENT.  GET UNDER A WORKBENCH OR PIECE
OF STURDY FURNITURE. IF NO BASEMENT IS AVAILABLE...SEEK SHELTER
IN AN INTERIOR ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET ON THE LOWEST FLOOR.
USE BLANKETS...PILLOWS...OR CUSHIONS TO COVER YOUR BODY.

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 22, 2:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Lincoln, Wayne	59 min
Jul 22, 2:55 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Putnam	50 min

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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.