Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Flash Flood Warnings in 1998

Flash Flood Warning 83, NWS State College, PA

June 23, 1998Elk County, Pennsylvania

NWS State College, PA issued this flash flood warning at Jun 23, 1998, 2:24 PM EDT for Elk County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 3 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
Jun 23, 1998, 2:24 PM EDT (18:24 UTC)
Expired
Jun 23, 1998, 5:25 PM EDT
In force
3 hr
Issued by
NWS State College, PA
Area
Whole counties

County Elk County, PA

The radar

The State College radar (KCCX), 78 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:23 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

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 12:00Z, 6.4 hours before the alert went out and 166 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, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 1998-06-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 379 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, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 1998-06-23The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 7 square meters per square second.1939Sfc1 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
379 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-58 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
777 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KCTP 231826
FFWCTP
PAC047-232125-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA
224 PM EDT TUE JUN 23 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STATE COLLEGE HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  ELK COUNTY IN NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

* UNTIL 525 PM EDT

* AT 225 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  THUNDERSTORM WITH VERY HEAVY RAIN BETWEEN RIDGWAY AND HALLTON...
  MOVING SLOWLY EAST.

* A SLOW MOVING THUNDERSTORM JUST WEST OF RIDGWAY HAS PRODUCED
  DOPPLER ESTIMATED RAINFALL OF NEARLY 2.5 INCHES OVER THE PAST
  HOUR ACROSS WESTERN ELK COUNTY. TRIBUTARIES OF THE CLARION
  RIVER...SPECIFICALLY BEAR CREEK...IRWIN RUN...SPRIN&G CREEK...AND
  BIG MILL CREEK WILL BE ESPECIALLY PRONE TO FLASH FLOODING.

MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND IF FLOOD WATERS THREATEN.

BOOKBINDER/LAMBERT/OSTUNO

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 Jun 23, 2:20 PM EDT, 4 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 23, 2:20 PM EDT, 4 minutes before
CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA
220 PM EDT TUE JUN 23 1998

...DISCUSSION...
S/WV...MOVING THRU OHIO EARLY THIS AFTN...IS PROGGED TO PASS EAST OF
PA LATE THIS EVENING WITH A NORTHERLY LL FLOW OF DRIER AIR TO
FOLLOW.  WILL KEEP CHC POPS IN FCST THIS EVENING WITH HIGHEST POPS
IN THE E.  ALSO WILL MENTION FOG IN MOST ZONES AS CLRING SKIES
DEVELOP LATE.  RISING HEIGHTS COMBINED W/LL DRYING WILL RESULT IN A
LULL IN THE SHWERS/TSRA OVERNIGHT AND WED.

WEDNESDAY...RISING HEIGHTS COMBINED W/LL DRYING WILL RESULT IN A
LULL IN THE SHWERS/TSRA OVER MOST OF CWA. SFC CDFRT AND ASSOCIATED
DRYING PROGGED TO MAKE IT TO LOWER SUSQ VALL...THEN STALL.  WILL
THEREFORE MENTION POPS FOR AFTN TSRA ONLY ACROSS THE S TIER.  OVER N
PA...SFC DWPTS PROGGED TO FALL INTO THE LOW 60S.  FEEL MOSTLY SUNNY
SHOULD DO IT IN THIS REGION...SIMILAR TO THE WX OVER MICHIGAN
TODAY.  HIGHS WILL BE RATHER UNIFORM ACROSS C PA DUE TO AN EAST-WEST
8H TEMP GRADIENT MITIGATING THE NORMAL RANGE BETWEEN MOUNTAINS AND
SUSQ VALL.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT...WARM FRT LIFTING TO OUR N AND W WILL LIKELY
PRODUCE CONVECTION AT NOSE OF LL JET OVER E GRT LKS.  HAVE ADDED AN
INCREASE IN CLDS WED NITE AS BLOW OFF FM THIS ACTIVITY WUD TRACK SE
INTO PA.

THURSDAY...WARM FRT FINALLY MOVES BACK THRU PA...RESULTING IN PARTLY
SUNNY...WARM AND INCREASINGLY HUMID WX WITH CHC OF A TSRA.

FITZGERALD

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Jun 23, 11:20 AM EDT, 3 hours 4 minutes before
PAZ004>006-010>012-017>019-024>028-033>037-041-042-045-046-049>053-
056>059-063>066-232015-

SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA
1120 AM EDT TUE JUN 23 1998

...THUNDERSTORMS WITH LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL POSSIBLE TODAY AND
TONIGHT...

...FORECAST DETAILS...

SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS SCATTERED ACROSS THE REGION DURING THE
MIDDAY HOURS WILL BECOME MORE WIDESPREAD DURING THE MID AND LATE
AFTERNOON...AS A COLD FRONT SLIDES SOUTHEAST TOWARD THE REGION.

WEAK STEERING WINDS IN THE ATMOSPHERES MID LEVELS WILL CAUSE THE
SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS TO MOVE SLOWLY...RESULTING IN LOCALLY
HEAVY RAINFALL AMOUNTS.

THE GREATEST THREAT FOR HEAVY RAINFALL OF OVER AN INCH...APPEARS TO
BE ACROSS THE CENTRAL AND SOUTH-CENTRAL MOUNTAINS ALONG WITH THE
LAUREL HIGHLANDS THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING. THE THREAT OF
LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL THIS EVENING WILL LIKELY SHIFT INTO THE
SUSQUEHANNA VALLEY REGION...AND OVER THE EXTREME SOUTH CENTRAL
COUNTIES OF PENNSYLVANIA...NEAR THE MARYLAND BORDER.

RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF ONE AND ONE-HALF/1.5/ TO TWO/2.0/ INCHES IN ONE
HOUR OR ROUGHLY THREE/3.0/ TO FOUR/4.0/ INCHES IN THREE HOURS IS THE
THRESHOLD FOR FLASH FLOODING OF SMALLER STREAMS AND CREEKS. RAINFALL
OF THIS MAGNITUDE IS NOT EXPECTED OVER A WIDE AREA...BUT COULD OCCUR
LOCALLY WHERE THE THUNDERSTORMS PERSIST THE LONGEST.

IF THE THREAT OF HEAVY RAINFALL BECOMES MORE CERTAIN IN A PARTICULAR
AREA THIS AFTERNOON...FLASH FLOOD WATCHES WILL BE ISSUED.

...WEATHER SYNOPSIS...

A SLOW-MOVING COLD FRONT WILL MOVE INTO WESTERN AND CENTRAL
PENNSYLVANIA BY TONIGHT AND STALL OVER THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE
STATE EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING. ABUNDANT MOISTURE AHEAD OF THIS FRONT
WILL TRIGGER SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT IN
PENNSYLVANIA.

...OTHER INFORMATION...

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...RADIO OR TELEVISION FOR THE
LATEST UPDATES CONCERNING THIS DEVELOPING WEATHER SITUATION.
LISTEN FOR POSSIBLE FLASH FLOOD WATCHES.

OFFICIAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECASTS...STATEMENTS...
WATCHES...WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES FOR PENNSYLVANIA CAN BE FOUND
ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB AT THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS:

HTTP://IWIN.NWS.NOAA.GOV/IWIN/PA/PA.HTML

OR  140.90.6.254/IWIN/PA/PA.HTML

LAMBERT

The office that day

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

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Jun 23, 2:53 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPElk62 min
Jun 23, 3:40 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPCameron65 min
Jun 23, 3:51 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPTioga64 min
Jun 23, 3:53 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTPBedford3 hr
Jun 23, 4:07 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPMcKean63 min
Jun 23, 4:10 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTPTioga3 hr
Jun 23, 4:15 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPPotter65 min
Jun 23, 4:25 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPClearfield65 min
Jun 23, 4:39 PM EDTTornado WarningCTPBedford61 min
Jun 23, 4:49 PM EDTTornado WarningCTPFulton61 min
Jun 23, 4:57 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPHuntingdon63 min
Jun 23, 5:14 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPCentre61 min
Jun 23, 5:20 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTPElk3 hr
Jun 23, 5:28 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTPYork3 hr
Jun 23, 5:35 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTPPotter3 hr
Jun 23, 5:54 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPHuntingdon51 min
Jun 23, 5:58 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPFranklin62 min
Jun 23, 6:21 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTPFranklin3 hr
Jun 23, 6:54 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTPTioga3 hr
Jun 23, 7:58 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTPNorthumberland3 hr

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.