Alert archive / West Virginia / Tornado Watches in 1998

Tornado Watch 483

May 31, 19986 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 31, 1998, 6:30 PM EDT for 6 states. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 31, 1998, 6:30 PM EDT (22:30 UTC)
Expired: Jun 1, 1998, 1:00 AM EDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 82 counties

Boyd County, KY, Greenup County, KY, Johnson County, KY, Lawrence County, KY, Martin County, KY, Allegany County, MD, Garrett County, MD, Athens County, OH, Belmont County, OH, Fairfield County, OH, Gallia County, OH, Guernsey County, OH, Harrison County, OH, Hocking County, OH, Jackson County, OH, Jefferson County, OH, Lawrence County, OH, Meigs County, OH, Monroe County, OH, Morgan County, OH, Muskingum County, OH, Noble County, OH, Perry County, OH, Vinton County, OH, Washington County, OH, Allegheny County, PA, Armstrong County, PA, Bedford County, PA, Blair County, PA, Cambria County, PA, Clearfield County, PA, Fayette County, PA, Fulton County, PA, Greene County, PA, Indiana County, PA, Somerset County, PA, Washington County, PA, Westmoreland County, PA, City of Winchester, VA, Frederick County, VA, Barbour County, WV, Boone County, WV, Braxton County, WV, Brooke County, WV, Cabell County, WV, Calhoun County, WV, Clay County, WV, Doddridge County, WV, Gilmer County, WV, Grant County, WV, Hampshire County, WV, Hancock County, WV, Hardy County, WV, Harrison County, WV, Jackson County, WV, Kanawha County, WV, Lewis County, WV, Lincoln County, WV, Marion County, WV, Marshall County, WV, Mason County, WV, Mineral County, WV, Monongalia County, WV, Morgan County, WV, Nicholas County, WV, Ohio County, WV, Pendleton County, WV, Pleasants County, WV, Preston County, WV, Putnam County, WV, Randolph County, WV, Ritchie County, WV, Roane County, WV, Taylor County, WV, Tucker County, WV, Tyler County, WV, Upshur County, WV, Wayne County, WV, Webster County, WV, Wetzel County, WV, Wirt County, WV, Wood County, WV

Warnings issued inside it

26 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 31, 6:40 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Jefferson	50 min
May 31, 6:56 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Allegheny, Westmoreland	64 min
May 31, 6:59 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Washington	51 min
May 31, 7:15 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PBZ	Washington	45 min
May 31, 7:33 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Fayette, Greene	57 min
May 31, 7:45 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PBZ	Fayette	45 min
May 31, 8:21 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Muskingum	54 min
May 31, 8:22 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	CTP	Somerset	38 min
May 31, 8:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Jackson	39 min
May 31, 8:45 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	CTP	Bedford, Somerset	60 min
May 31, 8:56 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Hancock	34 min
May 31, 9:04 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Allegheny	56 min
May 31, 9:05 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Belmont	55 min
May 31, 9:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Marshall	44 min
May 31, 9:32 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	CTP	Bedford	28 min
May 31, 9:39 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Westmoreland	51 min
May 31, 9:41 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Washington	49 min
May 31, 9:45 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	LWX	Allegany	30 min
May 31, 9:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Cambria, Somerset	60 min
May 31, 9:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Blair	60 min
May 31, 9:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Indiana	45 min
May 31, 9:46 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Fulton	29 min
May 31, 10:03 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Fayette	57 min
May 31, 10:24 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Bedford	66 min
May 31, 10:39 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	CTP	Bedford	66 min
May 31, 10:52 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CTP	Fulton	38 min

The nearest sounding before it

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 12:00Z, 10.5 hours before the alert went out and 124 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: 1035 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -145 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1038 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 198 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 281 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.3
Supercell composite: 4.7

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.

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 31, 4:00 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Anderson, Ballard, Bath, Boone, Bourbon, Boyle and 60 more	6 hr
May 31, 7:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Adair, Allen, Barren, Bell, Boyle, Breathitt and 46 more	6 hr
May 31, 10:30 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Columbiana, Coshocton, Crawford and 29 more	5 hr
May 31, 1:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Allen, Auglaize, Champaign, Crawford, Darke, Defiance and 21 more	6 hr
May 31, 3:30 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Columbiana, Coshocton, Cuyahoga and 18 more	7 hr
May 31, 3:00 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bradford, Susquehanna, Wayne, Wyoming	5 hr
May 31, 5:00 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Centre, Chester, Clinton and 25 more	5 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in West Virginia, 1998 Tornado Watches in Ohio, 1998 Tornado Watches in Pennsylvania, 1998 Every tornado watch 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.