Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 54, NWS State College, PA

July 21, 1998Columbia County, Pennsylvania

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.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Phillips Aaf/Abe, MD at 12:00Z on 1998-07-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 0 joules per kilogram.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Phillips Aaf/Abe, MD at 12:00Z on 1998-07-21The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 17 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
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

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 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

LAMBERT

In 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.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Jul 21, 9:56 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPPotter64 min
Jul 21, 10:48 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPTioga62 min
Jul 21, 11:01 AM EDTTornado WarningCTPTioga64 min
Jul 21, 11:43 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPLycoming, Sullivan67 min
Jul 21, 11:43 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPLycoming, Sullivan62 min
Jul 21, 12:42 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPColumbia63 min
Jul 21, 1:24 PM EDTTornado WarningCTPColumbia56 min
Jul 21, 4:11 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPSomerset74 min
Jul 21, 4:36 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPBedford59 min
Jul 21, 4:53 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPFulton32 min
Jul 21, 4:55 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPFulton30 min
Jul 21, 5:21 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPLebanon19 min
Jul 21, 6:11 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTPLancaster34 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.