Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1998

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 27, NWS Pittsburgh, PA

April 8, 1998Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

NWS Pittsburgh, PA issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Apr 8, 1998, 5:50 PM EDT for Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 40 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: Apr 8, 1998, 5:50 PM EDT (21:50 UTC)
Expired: Apr 8, 1998, 6:30 PM EDT
In force: 40 min
Issued by: NWS Pittsburgh, PA
Area: Whole counties

County Westmoreland County, PA

The radar

The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 68 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:51 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
Apr 8, 6:15 PM EDT	Thunderstorm Wind	Greensburg, PA	Thunderstorm winds downed powerlines in Greensburg.

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

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 12:00Z, 9.8 hours before the alert went out and 55 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: 19 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -52 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 824 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 50 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 37 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 216 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.1

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 severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Apr 8, 4:48 PM EDT, 1 hour 2 minutes before

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Local storm report, Apr 8, 4:48 PM EDT, 1 hour 2 minutes before

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Local storm report, Apr 8, 4:57 PM EDT, 53 minutes before

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      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
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      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
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      <p id="message2">
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      <p class="small" id="detail">
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      </p>
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Local storm report, Apr 8, 4:57 PM EDT, 53 minutes before

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<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
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      <p class="small" id="detail">
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Local storm report, Apr 8, 5:14 PM EDT, 36 minutes before

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<head>
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</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
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</html>

Local storm report, Apr 8, 5:14 PM EDT, 36 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
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The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 8, 3:29 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Coshocton	46 min
Apr 8, 3:33 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Tuscarawas	42 min
Apr 8, 3:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Belmont	45 min
Apr 8, 3:51 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Harrison	69 min
Apr 8, 4:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Columbiana	53 min
Apr 8, 4:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Jefferson	45 min
Apr 8, 4:14 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Washington	61 min
Apr 8, 4:23 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Jefferson	52 min
Apr 8, 4:28 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Beaver	62 min
Apr 8, 4:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Allegheny	60 min
Apr 8, 4:51 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Mercer	54 min
Apr 8, 5:05 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Washington	40 min
Apr 8, 5:10 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Westmoreland	50 min
Apr 8, 5:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Westmoreland	44 min
Apr 8, 5:28 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Armstrong	47 min
Apr 8, 5:37 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Indiana	53 min
Apr 8, 3:56 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Marshall, Ohio	49 min
Apr 8, 4:32 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Brooke	28 min

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.