Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Tornado Warnings in 1998
Tornado Warning 42, NWS State College, PA
NWS State College, PA issued this tornado warning at Jun 2, 1998, 8:13 PM EDT for Somerset County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 92 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
- Jun 2, 1998, 8:13 PM EDT (00:13 UTC)
- Expired
- Jun 2, 1998, 9:45 PM EDT
- In force
- 92 min
- Issued by
- NWS State College, PA
- Area
- Whole counties
County Somerset County, PA
The radar
The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 119 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:16 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2, 9:02 PM EDT | Tornado F3 | Bakersville, PA | The second tornado of the evening, and the third to strike Somerset County in 3 days, this F3 was by far the longest and strongest of the trio. The storm created a path of damage 33 or more miles long, from Fayette County southeast across southern Somerset Cou |
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 watch it was issued in
The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.
| Issued | Product | Office | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2, 4:15 PM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 00:00Z, 0.2 hours before the alert went out and 103 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1770 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -32 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1107 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 59 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 352 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 383 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 4.1
- Supercell composite
- 19.4
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
034 WFUS01 KCTP 030012 RRA TORCTP PAC111-030145- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA 813 PM EDT TUE JUN 2 1998 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STATE COLLEGE HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... SOMERSET COUNTY IN SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA * UNTIL 945 PM EDT * AT 811 PM EDT... STATE COLLEGE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO 25 MILES NORTHWEST OF SOMERSET MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 35 MPH. * THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR... LAUREL MOUNTAIN VILLAGE BY 835 PM EDT JEROME BY 845 PM EDT SOMERSET BY 850 PM EDT MEYERSDALE BY 900 PM EDT GO TO THE BASEMENT OR A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR MSE
The office that day
Everything else NWS State College, PA issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2, 8:02 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | CTP | Cameron | 63 min |
| Jun 2, 8:10 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | CTP | Juniata, Mifflin | 75 min |
| Jun 2, 8:52 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | CTP | Centre | 63 min |
| Jun 2, 8:57 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | CTP | Union | 48 min |
| Jun 2, 9:04 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | CTP | Montour, Northumberland | 61 min |
| Jun 2, 9:10 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | CTP | Huntingdon, Mifflin | 45 min |
| Jun 2, 9:12 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | CTP | Snyder | 33 min |
| Jun 2, 9:25 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | CTP | Columbia, Schuylkill | 75 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Pennsylvania, 1998Every tornado warning in 1998Tornadoes 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.