Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Flash Flood Warnings in 1998

Flash Flood Warning 67, NWS State College, PA

May 5, 1998York County, Pennsylvania

NWS State College, PA issued this flash flood warning at May 5, 1998, 6:15 PM EDT for York County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 4 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued
May 5, 1998, 6:15 PM EDT (22:15 UTC)
Expired
May 5, 1998, 10:00 PM EDT
In force
4 hr
Issued by
NWS State College, PA
Area
Whole counties

County York County, PA

The radar

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 124 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:17 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

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), launched 12:00Z, 10.3 hours before the alert went out and 122 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-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 1998-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 24 joules per kilogram.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 1998-05-05The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 77 square meters per square second.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
24 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-20 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
497 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
65 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 flash flood warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS State College, PA wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at May 5, 3:15 PM EDT, 3 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 5, 3:15 PM EDT, 3 hours before
CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA
315 PM EDT TUE MAY 5 1998

WRKZNS SENT TO PHL AND PIT VIA PHLAFDCTP

...DISCUSSION...

UPPER LOW CONTINUES TO SPIN ACROSS THE CENTRAL APPALACHIAN MTNS THIS
AFTERNOON. A CONVERGENCE ZONE HAS SET UP ROUGHLY FROM JUST WEST OF
HARRISBURG TO JUST EAST OF STATE COLLEGE THIS AFTERNOON AND RAIN HAS
BEEN PERSISTANT IN THAT AREA...JUST SCATTERED OUTSIDE OF THAT BAND.
6 HOUR FFG GUIDANCE IN THAT AREA IS AROUND 3 INCHES. WITH DEW PTS
ONLY IN THE 50S AND PWATS BELOW AN INCH FEEL THAT 3 INCHES WILL NOT
BE REACHED...ALTHOUGH SOME LOCALIZED 2 INCH AMOUNTS ARE POSSIBLE IN
BEST TRAINING AREAS. THEREFORE DID NOT GO WITH AN FFA. SHOWERS WILL
PROBABLY BE INHIBITED JUST OUTSIDE OF THE BAND EARLY THIS
EVENING...WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS ELSEWHERE AS SOME BREAKS HAVE
DEVELOPED IN PRESENCE OF COLD AIR ALOFT ASSOCIATED WITH THE UPPER
LOW. THE CONVERGENCE AREA WILL WEAKEN AND SHIFT SLOWLY EAST THIS
EVENING AS THE UPPER SYSTEM CONTINUES TO MOVE EAST.

ON WEDNESDAY...THE UPPER SYSTEM IS NOW FORECAST TO TRACK EAST AWAY
FROM PA A BIT SLOWER THAN WHAT WAS SHOWN YESTERDAY. BASED ON MODEL
KS AND LAPSE RATES WENT WITH A CHC POP FOR THE NE 1/3 OF THE CWA.
ELSEWHERE SKIES WILL BE PARTLY SUNNY.

NEXT SYSTEM WILL APPROACH THE FORECAST AREA ON THURSDAY. WENT WITH
CHC POPS DURING THE AFTERNOON FOR THE WEST HALF OF THE CWA AND
INCREASING CLOUDS WITH NO POPS FOR THE EAST HALF.

MSE

The office that day

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

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 4, 10:25 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPHuntingdon45 min
May 5, 6:43 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPCambria47 min
May 5, 6:55 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPSomerset35 min
May 5, 7:16 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTPCambria, Somerset3 hr
May 5, 7:32 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTPDauphin3 hr
May 5, 7:40 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTPBedford50 min
May 5, 7:40 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPBedford50 min

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Pennsylvania, 1998Every flash flood warning in 1998

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.