Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Tornado Warnings in 1998
Tornado Warning 54, NWS State College, PA
NWS State College, PA issued this tornado warning at Jul 21, 1998, 1:17 PM EDT for Columbia County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 63 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.
The area
The counties it named.
The facts
- Issued
- Jul 21, 1998, 1:17 PM EDT (17:17 UTC)
- Expired
- Jul 21, 1998, 2:20 PM EDT
- In force
- 63 min
- Issued by
- NWS State College, PA
- Area
- Whole counties
County Columbia County, PA
The nearest sounding before it
Phillips Aaf/Abe, MD (KAPG), launched 12:00Z, 5.3 hours before the alert went out and 177 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
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- No buoyant parcel
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1435 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 17 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 110 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
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 tornado 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 tornado warning went out at Jul 20, 8:50 PM EDT, 16 hours 27 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jul 20, 8:50 PM EDT, 16 hours 27 minutes before
CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA
850 PM EDT MON JUL 20 1998
...ZONES WL BE AVBL TO PIT/PHL VIA ADMCTP AROUND 920 PM...
...DISCUSSION...
FAIRLY CLEAR AND QUIET EARLY EVENING ACROSS CENTRAL AND WESTERN PA
IS NO INDICATION OF WHAT WILL ARRIVE IN JUST AN HOUR ACROSS THE
NORTHWEST COUNTIES...AND PROBABLY THROUGH THE REMAINDER OF THE
NORTHWEST OF ROUTE 220 (I.E. KAOO TO KIPT LINE) BY 04-05Z. SPC JUST
SENT PRELIM MESSAGE FOR SVR TSRA WATCH TIL 07Z.
DCURRENT LARGE SCALE BOW ECHO MOVING INTO NW PA WILL MAINTAIN ITS
BEST STRENGTH ON THE SRN FLANK AS IT MOVES/DEVELOPS SE ALONG THE
BEST MESOSCALE INSTABILITY/MOIST CONVERGENCE AXIS. NEW DEVELOPMENT
EXPECTED WITH A WEAK SHORT WAVE/AREA OF H250 DIVERGENCE LATER
TONIGHT MAY SHOW PREFERENCE FOR FORMING ACROSS SWRN PA AND THE
LAUREL HIGHLANDS ALONG THE OUTFLOW BOUNDARY FROM THE CURRENT SQUALL
LINE.
DIFFICULT QPF FORECAST WITH EXTREME RANGE IN PRECIP BETWEEN
GRIDPOINTS ONLY 100 MI APART. STRONG BELT OF WESTERLIES ALOFT WILL
GRADUALLY SETTLE SOUTH OVER THE GREAT LAKES AND U.S/QUEBEC BORDER
DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS IN CONJUNCTION WITH SLOWLY FALLING HEIGHTS.
BAND OF STRONG LLVL CONVERGENCE/VVEL WILL SET UP ALONG A QUASI STNRY
FRONT...WHICH WILL EVENTUALLY BECOME STRUNG OUT ON A KORD TO KCLE
AND KROC LINE BY EARLY WED AFTERNOON.
QPF AMOUNTS OVER 2.0 PROJECTED BY THE ETA ACROSS THE NW COUNTIES
OF PA WITH GENERALLY .25 TO .50 SE OF KAOO AND KIPT.
THUS...I DONT HAVE A HIGH DEGREE OF CONFIDENCE IN ETA QPF...WHICH
MAY ACTUALLY BE THE HIGHEST OVER THE SW AND SCENT COUNTIES DURING
THE NEXT 18 TO 24 HOURS.
WILL RE-ISSUE AN SPS FOR POTENTIAL HEAVY RAINS AND KEEP A CLOSE EYE
ON MVMT/REDEVELOPMENT OF TSRA OVER OHIO FOR A POSSIBLE FLASH FLOOD
WATCH.
MBE (MESO BETA ELEMENT) VECTORS VIA ETA HOURLY PROFILE DATA ARE WEAK
FROM THE SSE SUGGESTING A STRONG TENDENCY FOR TRAINING ECHOES
OVERNIGHT.
WILL ADJUST WORDING OF PRECIP OVERNIGHT AND UP POPS IN ALL AREAS OF
THE CENT AND WEST.
.CTP...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH TIL 07Z FOR
PAZ004>006-010-011-017>019-024>026-033-034
LAMBERTIn the hours before
Special weather statement, Jul 21, 11:00 AM EDT, 2 hours 17 minutes before
PAZ004>006-010>012-017-018-024>028-033>037-041-042-045>046-049>053 -211505- SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA 11 AM EDT TUE JUL 21 1998 ...THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING OVER NORTHERN PENNSYLVANIA... A WARM FRONT WILL USHER INTO THE REGION...VERY WARM...MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIR. THIS WILL SET THE STAGE FOR POSSIBLE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THE MAIN THREAT FROM THE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN. SKYWARN ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED LATER THIS AFTERNOON OR EVENING. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...OR YOUR FAVORITE LOCAL RADIO OR TELEVISION STATION FOR THE LATEST FORECASTS...STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS. LA CORTE
The office that day
Everything else NWS State College, PA issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 21, 9:56 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP | Potter | 64 min |
| Jul 21, 10:48 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP | Tioga | 62 min |
| Jul 21, 11:01 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | CTP | Tioga | 64 min |
| Jul 21, 11:43 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP | Lycoming, Sullivan | 67 min |
| Jul 21, 11:43 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP | Lycoming, Sullivan | 62 min |
| Jul 21, 12:42 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP | Columbia | 63 min |
| Jul 21, 1:24 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | CTP | Columbia | 56 min |
| Jul 21, 4:11 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP | Somerset | 74 min |
| Jul 21, 4:36 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP | Bedford | 59 min |
| Jul 21, 4:53 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP | Fulton | 32 min |
| Jul 21, 4:55 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP | Fulton | 30 min |
| Jul 21, 5:21 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP | Lebanon | 19 min |
| Jul 21, 6:11 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP | Lancaster | 34 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive.