Alert archive / Maryland / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 2002

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 190, NWS Baltimore/Washington

August 5, 2002Montgomery County, Maryland

NWS Baltimore/Washington issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Aug 5, 2002, 3:56 PM EDT for Montgomery County, Maryland. It was in force for 64 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
Aug 5, 2002, 3:56 PM EDT (19:56 UTC)
Expired
Aug 5, 2002, 5:00 PM EDT
In force
64 min
Issued by
NWS Baltimore/Washington
Area
Whole counties

County Montgomery County, MD

The radar

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 30 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:58 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

TimeReportWhereRemark
Aug 5, 4:10 PM EDTHail 0.88Damascus, MDNickel sized hail fell.

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 watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

IssuedProductOfficeLasted
Aug 5, 2:50 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPC5 hr

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.

NWS Baltimore/Washington wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Aug 5, 3:50 PM EDT, 6 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 5, 3:50 PM EDT, 6 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED WARNING SECTION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON
350 PM EDT MON AUG 5 2002

SHORT TERM...TNGT THRU TUE NGT...

I CAN SAY WITH ENTHUSIASM THAT THE 9 DAY OPPRESSIVE HEAT WAVE WILL
COME TO AN ABRUPT END TONIGHT.

YES IT WAS OPPRESSIVE...BUT THIS 9 DAY STRETCH OF 90+ DAYS AT DCA
PALES IN COMPARISON TO JUL 29 - AUG 18, 1988 WHEN WE HAD 21
STRAIGHT DAYS OF 90 DEG OR HIGHER.

ALL MODELS ARE IN GENERAL AGREEMENT ON THE SCENARIO FOR THE NEXT 48
HRS. PATTERN OVER THE COUNTRY IS BECOMING HIGHLY AMPLIFIED TDA AND
TONIGHT. AS PACIFIC TROF MOVES INTO THE PACIFIC NW STATES...THE
DOWNSTREAM SUBTROPICAL RIDGE WILL SHARPEN FROM THE CENTRAL U.S. INTO
CENTRAL CANADA TDA AND TNGT. A STRONG SHORTWAVE...COMING OUT OF
ONTARIO TDA WILL ROLL DOWN THE E SIDE OF THE SHARPENING RIDGE INTO
NEW ENG TNGT...CARVING OUT A TROF ALG THE E CST. THE TROF WILL
REMAIN IN PLACE THRU TUE NGT.

AT THE SFC...CDFNT WILL PLOW SEWD IN AN AUTUMN LIKE MANNER TONIGHT
PASSING THRU THE AREA SHORTLY AFT MIDNGT. UNLIKE PREVIOUS PATHETIC
JULY AND EARLY AUGUST CDFNTS...NOTHING IS GOING TO STOP THIS ONE AS
IT IS SHOVED THRU THE AREA ON NW FLOW ALOFT AND BEING PUSHED ALONG
BY 1030MB SFC HIGH OVR ONTARIO. LARGE AND STRONG CANADIAN SFC HIGH
WILL DOMINATE TUE AND TUE NGT.

AIR MASS OVR THE AREA IS UNSTABLE WITH LAPS ANALYSIS SHOWING CAPES
OF 2000 TO 3500 J/KG AND LIS OF -6C TO -10C. SCT CONVECTION WILL
DEVELOP DURING THE REMAINDER OF THE AFTRN OVR THE AREA DUE TO
INSTABILITY. MORE ORGANIZED CONVECTION SHOULD PUSH THRU THE AREA
EARLY THIS EVENING ALG THE PREFRONTAL TROF THAT PASSES THRU BETWEEN
21Z AND 03Z. WIND FIELDS ARE NOT THAT IMPRESSIVE. HOWEVER...GOOD
INSTABILITY ALG WITH FORCING AND CONVERGENCE ALG THE PREFRONTAL TROF
COULD RESULT IN SOME STORMS BEING SVR. DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS
APPEAR TO BE THE BIGGEST THREAT. SVR ACTIVITY SHOULD DIMINISH BEHIND
PREFRONTAL TROF WITH ONLY A FEW SHRA/TSRA BETWEEN THE PREFRONTAL
TROF AND THE ACTUAL FRONT. BEST CHC OF CONVECTION TONIGHT APPEARS TO
BE ACROSS THE NRN ZNS...CLOSEST TO THE BEST WIND FIELD AND DYNAMICS.
WILL HAVE LIKELY POPS NRN 2.3 OR AREA AND CHC POPS SRN 1/3.

PLENTY OF SUBSIDENCE AND DRY COOL AIR OVR THE AREA TUE AND TUE NGT.
850MB TEMPS TUMBLE TO +9C BY TUE NGT. IT WILL CERTAINLY BE PLEASANT
TUE AND ACTUALLY A BIT COOL IN PLACES TUE NGT.

TIGHT GRADIENT SHOULD RESULT IN BREEZY CONDS ON TUE. WITH AXIS OF
SFC HIGH WELL WEST OF THE REGION...WIND WILL STAY UP TUE NIGHT...BUT
NOT AS STRONG AS TUE.

NGM/ETA/AVN MOS ARE RELATIVELY CLOSE AND TOOK A BLEND OF ALL THE
NUMBERS NEXT 3 PDS. COULD BE IN THE 40S TUE NGT IN SOME OF THE
COLDER WRN VLYS

LONG-TERM (WED- MON)

NORTHERLY FLOW WILL PREVAIL WED-THU KEEPING TEMPS ABOUT 10 DEG BELOW
NORMAL. WARMER TEMPS AND HUMID AIR WILL RETURN TO THE REGION SAT-MON
AS SOUTHERLY FLOW DEVELOPS ON BACKSIDE OF DEPARTING SFC HIGH.
NOT MUCH SKILL AT DAY 7...BUT MODELS HINT A DEVELOPING MID-LVL
TROUGH OVR THE CENTER OF THE NATION.  MRF INDICATES A
SHORTWAVE-TROUGH MOVING ACROSS OH/PA LATE SUN NIGHT..SO HAVE
INTRODUCED 30 POPS FOR SUN-MON.

.LWX...
DC...HEAT ADVISORY UNTIL 800 PM EDT MONDAY FOR ZONE DCZ001.
MD...HEAT ADVISORY UNTIL 800 PM EDT MONDAY FOR ZONES
     MDZ002>007...MDZ009>011...MDZ013>014...MDZ016>018.
VA...HEAT ADVISORY UNTIL 800 PM EDT MONDAY FOR ZONES
     VAZ025>031...VAZ036>042...VAZ050>057.
WV...HEAT ADVISORY UNTIL 800 PM EDT MONDAY FOR ZONES
     WVZ048>053...WVZ055.
MARINE...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY CHESAPEAKE BAY FROM SMITH POINT NORTHWARD
         SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR THE TIDAL POTOMAC

WALSTON

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Aug 5, 11:00 AM EDT, 4 hours 56 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>
</html>
Local storm report, Aug 5, 3:34 PM EDT, 22 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>
</html>
Special weather statement, Aug 5, 3:45 PM EDT, 11 minutes before
MDZ005-009-010-052030-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON
345 PM EDT MON AUG 5 2002

...STRONG THUNDERSTORMS APPROACHING SOUTHWEST CARROLL...
MONTGOMERY... AND HOWARD COUNTIES...

AT 345 PM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED STRONG
THUNDERSTORMS MOVING SOUTHEAST OUT OF FREDERICK COUNTY MARYLAND 5
MILES WEST OF MOUNT AIRY. THESE STORMS HAVE A HISTORY OF PRODUCING
STRONG WINDS...BUT HAVE WEAKENED IN THE LAST 15 MINUTES. IF THESE
STORMS STRENGTHEN ONCE AGAIN...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNINGS MAY BE
REQUIRED FOR PART OF THE AREA.

EXPECT WIND GUSTS TO 50 MPH...SMALL HAIL...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING
WITH THESE STORMS AS THEY MOVE SOUTHEAST THROUGH THE SOUTHWEST
CORNER OF CARROLL AND ALL OF HOWARD AND MONTGOMERY COUNTIES.

A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 800 PM EDT MONDAY
EVENING FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND NORTHWESTERN MARYLAND AND
NORTHWESTERN VIRGINIA AND SOUTHWESTERN WEST VIRGINIA.

MANNING

The office that day

Everything else NWS Baltimore/Washington issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Aug 5, 3:33 PM EDTSpecial Marine WarningLWX57 min
Aug 5, 4:21 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWXFauquier, Rappahannock, Warren39 min
Aug 5, 4:49 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWXArlington, Fairfax, City of Alexandria, City of Falls Church56 min
Aug 5, 5:17 PM EDTSpecial Marine WarningLWX88 min
Aug 5, 2:35 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWXAllegany40 min
Aug 5, 3:22 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWXFrederick38 min
Aug 5, 4:11 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWXHoward49 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Maryland, 2002Every severe thunderstorm warning in 2002

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; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.