Alert archive / West Virginia / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1998

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 40, NWS Charleston, WV

May 16, 1998Upshur County, West Virginia

NWS Charleston, WV issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 16, 1998, 6:17 PM EDT for Upshur County, West Virginia. It was in force for 28 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: May 16, 1998, 6:17 PM EDT (22:17 UTC)
Expired: May 16, 1998, 6:45 PM EDT
In force: 28 min
Issued by: NWS Charleston, WV
Area: Whole counties

County Upshur County, WV

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 145 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:21 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
May 16, 6:25 PM EDT	Hail 0.75	Alton, WV

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, 10.3 hours before the alert went out and 169 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: 10 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -327 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1566 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 59 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.

188 
WUUS1 KCRW 162218 RRA
SVRCRW
WVC097-162245-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON WV
617 PM EDT SAT MAY 16 1998
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  645 PM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION......
 
IN NORTH CENTRAL WEST VIRGINIA
 
   ...UPSHUR COUNTY
 
AT 615 PM DOPPLER WEATHER RADAR IN CHARLESTON DETECTED A SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM NEAR ROCK CAVE. ANOTHER THUNDERSTORM...WHICH MAY BE
SEVERE...WAS NEAR TALLMANSVILLE. THESE STORMS WERE MOVING TO THE
EAST AROUND 15 MILES AN HOUR. THESE STORMS ARE LIKELY TO PRODUCE
LARGE HAIL.
 
 
<< CALL TO ACTION >> IF YOU ARE CAUGHT OUTSIDE...SEEK SHELTER
IN A STRONG BUILDING.  DAMAGING WIND...LARGE HAIL...VERY HEAVY RAIN
...AND DEADLY LIGHTNING ARE ALL POSSIBLE IN SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS.
STAY INSIDE AWAY FROM WINDOWS UNTIL THE STORM HAS PASSED.
 
ZINN

The office that day

Everything else NWS Charleston, WV issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 16, 5:48 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Upshur	27 min
May 16, 6:34 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Randolph	41 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in West Virginia, 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.