Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 251

May 3, 199712 counties in New Jersey; 5 counties in New York; 20 counties in Pennsylvania

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at May 3, 1997, 4:30 PM EDT for 12 counties in New Jersey; 5 counties in New York; 20 counties in Pennsylvania. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 3, 1997, 4:30 PM EDT (20:30 UTC)
Expired: May 3, 1997, 10:00 PM EDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 37 counties

Camden County, NJ, Essex County, NJ, Gloucester County, NJ, Hunterdon County, NJ, Mercer County, NJ, Middlesex County, NJ, Morris County, NJ, Passaic County, NJ, Somerset County, NJ, Sussex County, NJ, Union County, NJ, Warren County, NJ, Dutchess County, NY, Orange County, NY, Rockland County, NY, Sullivan County, NY, Ulster County, NY, Berks County, PA, Bucks County, PA, Carbon County, PA, Chester County, PA, Delaware County, PA, Lackawanna County, PA, Lancaster County, PA, Lebanon County, PA, Lehigh County, PA, Luzerne County, PA, Monroe County, PA, Montgomery County, PA, Northampton County, PA, Philadelphia County, PA, Pike County, PA, Schuylkill County, PA, Susquehanna County, PA, Wayne County, PA, Wyoming County, PA, York County, PA

The radar

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 129 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:29 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.

Warnings issued inside it

4 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 3, 4:50 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Berks	50 min
May 3, 4:54 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Schuylkill	66 min
May 3, 5:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Carbon, Monroe	60 min
May 3, 6:22 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	York	68 min

The nearest sounding before it

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), launched 12:00Z, 8.5 hours before the alert went out and 235 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 517 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 48 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 263 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 343 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.

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SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 3, 1:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango and 16 more	7 hr

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Pennsylvania, 1997 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in New Jersey, 1997 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in New York, 1997 Every severe thunderstorm watch 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.