Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Flash Flood Warnings in 2002

Flash Flood Warning 3, NWS Pittsburgh, PA

April 15, 2002Mercer County, Pennsylvania

NWS Pittsburgh, PA issued this flash flood warning at Apr 15, 2002, 7:23 PM EDT for Mercer County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 3 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Apr 15, 2002, 7:23 PM EDT (23:23 UTC)
Expired: Apr 15, 2002, 10:15 PM EDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Pittsburgh, PA
Area: Whole counties

County Mercer County, PA

The radar

The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 86 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:24 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.

The nearest sounding before it

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 12:00Z, 11.4 hours before the alert went out and 100 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: 67 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -30 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 620 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 47 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 192 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 243 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.

000 
WGUS51 KPBZ 152323
FFWPBZ
PAC085-160215-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PITTSBURGH PA
720 PM EDT MON APR 15 2002

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PITTSBURGH HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  MERCER COUNTY IN PENNSYLVANIA

* UNTIL 1015 PM EDT

* AT 720 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED 2 TO 2.5  
  INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN IN THE LAST HOUR OVER LOCATIONS IN       
  NORTHEASTERN MERCER COUNTY...SPECIFICALLY IN THE MILL CREEK AREA.
  THE HEAVY RAINS WILL BE EXITING MERCER COUNTY BY 740PM...BUT       
  RUNOFF WILL STILL BE A CONCERN THROUGHOUT THE EVENING HOURS.

<<CALL TO ACTION>>DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE
WATER COVERS THE ROADWAY. THE WATER DEPTH MAY BE TOO GREAT TO ALLOW
YOUR CAR TO CROSS SAFELY. VEHICLES CAUGHT IN RISING WATER SHOULD BE
ABANDONED QUICKLY. MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND.

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 15, 6:04 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Mercer	41 min
Apr 15, 6:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Venango	60 min
Apr 15, 6:24 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PBZ	Mercer	36 min
Apr 15, 6:44 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Clarion	61 min
Apr 15, 6:59 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Mercer	46 min
Apr 15, 7:12 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Venango	48 min
Apr 15, 7:14 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Jefferson	46 min
Apr 15, 7:18 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Butler	27 min
Apr 15, 7:35 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PBZ	Butler	25 min
Apr 15, 7:46 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Clarion	44 min
Apr 15, 7:56 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Venango	19 min
Apr 15, 7:58 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PBZ	Jefferson	32 min

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Pennsylvania, 2002 Every flash flood 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.