Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1998

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 177, NWS State College, PA

August 14, 1998Fulton County, Pennsylvania

NWS State College, PA issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Aug 14, 1998, 1:54 PM EDT for Fulton County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 51 min. 1 report 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: Aug 14, 1998, 1:54 PM EDT (17:54 UTC)
Expired: Aug 14, 1998, 2:45 PM EDT
In force: 51 min
Issued by: NWS State College, PA
Area: Whole counties

County Fulton County, PA

The radar

The State College radar (KCCX), 111 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:55 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
Aug 14, 2:45 PM EDT	Thunderstorm Wind 51	Harrisonville, PA	A number of trees were uprooted.

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 nearest sounding before it

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), launched 12:00Z, 5.9 hours before the alert went out and 125 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: 216 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -24 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 727 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 53 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 66 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.

330 
WUUS01 KCTP 141755 RRA
SVRCTP
PAC057-141845-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA
154 PM EDT FRI AUG 14 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STATE COLLEGE HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
  FULTON COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA

* UNTIL 245 PM EDT

* AT 153 PM EDT...STATE COLLEGE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE
  THUNDERSTORM 11 MILES WEST OF MCCONNELLSBURG OR 6 MILES SOUTHWEST
  OF ANDOVER...MOVING EAST AT 15 MPH.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR...
  ANDOVER AT 210 PM EDT
  HARRISONVILLE AT 215 PM EDT
  MCCONNELLSBURG AT 230 PM EDT
  KNOBSVILLE AT 240 PM EDT
  FORT LITTLETON AT 245 PM EDT

THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM STAY INDOORS AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

BOOKBINDER/WINTHER

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm 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 severe thunderstorm warning went out at Aug 14, 9:55 AM EDT, 3 hours 59 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 14, 9:55 AM EDT, 3 hours 59 minutes before

CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA
955 AM EDT FRI AUG 14 1998

PHLADMCTP SENT TO PIT/PHL AT 945 AM

...DISCUSSION...
LOW CLOUDS PERSISTING ACROSS MUCH OF CENTRAL PA IN THE MOISTURE
LADEN AIRMASS.  HOWEVER KBFD METAR CURRENTLY SHOWING NEARLY CLEAR
SKIES ATTM.  AWIPS SATELLITE INDICATES CLOUDS WILL QUICKLY RETURN TO
THE NORTHWEST MOUNTAINS AND HANG TOUGH ACROSS THE REMAINDER OF THE
REGION.  WITH THIS IN MIND...HAVE LOWERED HIGHS A FEW DEGREES IN
SOME PLACES...MAINLY IN THE MOUNTAINOUS COUNTIES WHICH NEEDED SOME
MORNING SUN TO GET CLOSE TO PREVIOUSLY FORECASTED TEMPS.

ALSO MADE SOME ADJUSTMENTS TO POPS ACROSS THE SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS AND
LOWER SUSQ VALLEY.  UPPER JET STREAK APPROACHING FROM THE SOUTHWEST
WILL AID PRECIP DEVELOPMENT IN AN AIRMASS ALREADY PRODUCING SOME
SHRA/TSRA OVER WV.  THIS ACTIVITY SHOULD SPREAD INTO SOUTHERN PA
THIS AFTERNOON AND EXPAND IN COVERAGE.  FOLLOWED ETA PRECIP
BULLSEYES AS A GUIDE AS THEY HAVE BEEN MOST ACCURATE THE PAST
SEVERAL MODEL RUNS. THE RESULTS ARE...RAISED POPS TO LIKELY ACROSS
THE SOUTH THIS AFTERNOON AND INCREASED POPS TO 60% FOR TONIGHT
ACROSS THE SOUTHEAST.

THANKS FOR THE COORD CALL PIT.

.CTP...NONE.

RXR

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 14, 2:48 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Franklin, Fulton	32 min
Aug 14, 3:49 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	CTP	Bedford, Fulton	2 hr
Aug 14, 5:49 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	CTP	Bedford, Fulton	116 min
Aug 14, 5:58 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	McKean	62 min
Aug 14, 6:54 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	CTP	McKean	3 hr
Aug 14, 7:59 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	CTP	Elk	2 hr

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Pennsylvania, 1998 Every severe thunderstorm 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.