Alert archive / Connecticut / Flash Flood Warnings in 2003

Flash Flood Warning 18, NWS Boston/Norton, MA

September 28, 2003Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut

NWS Boston/Norton, MA issued this flash flood warning at Sep 28, 2003, 10:04 AM EDT for Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut. 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: Sep 28, 2003, 10:04 AM EDT (14:04 UTC)
Expired: Sep 28, 2003, 1:00 PM EDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Boston/Norton, MA
Area: Whole counties

County Capitol Planning Region, CT

The radar

The Brookhaven radar (KOKX), 109 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 14:07 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

Brookhaven, NY (KOKX), launched 12:00Z, 2.1 hours before the alert went out and 109 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: 470 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 487 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 106 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 181 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.2
Supercell composite: 1.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
WGUS51 KBOX 281405
FFWBOX
CTC003-281700-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
1004 AM EDT SUN SEP 28 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  HARTFORD COUNTY IN NORTHERN CONNECTICUT
    INCLUDING WINDSOR LOCKS...WEST HARTFORD...NEWINGTON...NEW
    BRITAIN...EAST HARTFORD

* UNTIL 100 PM EDT.

* AT 10 AM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  BAND OF SHOWERS WITH TORRENTIAL RAIN OVER CENTRAL HARTFORD 
  COUNTY...WHICH EXTENDED SOUTH TO LONG ISLAND SOUND.  THE SHOWERS
  WERE MOVING NORTH AT 35 MPH.  RAINFALL TOTALS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES ARE
  EXPECTED IN HARTFORD COUNTY THROUGH EARLY AFTERNOON...WHICH WILL
  CAUSE FLOODING OF SMALLER RIVERS AND STREAMS...AS WELL AS
  SIGNIFICANT URBAN FLOODING.

A FLASH FLOOD WARNING MEANS THAT FLOODING IS IMMINENT OR OCCURRING.
IF YOU ARE IN THE WARNING AREA MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY.
DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH FLOODED AREAS...EVEN IF YOU THINK THE WATER IS 
SHALLOW.

$$

LAT...LON 4202 7278 4203 7256 4188 7260 4175 7261
          4163 7264 4159 7287 4188 7296 4194 7290
          4198 7302 4203 7301

DELLICARPINI

1 follow-up statement

000 
WGUS71 KBOX 281536
FFSBOX
CTC003-MAC013-281730-

FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
1135 AM EDT SUN SEP 28 2003

...TORRENTIAL RAINFALL CONTINUES IN HARTFORD AND CENTRAL HAMPDEN 
COUNTIES...

FLASH FLOOD WARNINGS REMAIN IN EFFECT FOR HARTFORD COUNTY UNTIL 1 
PM...AND FOR CENTRAL HAMPDEN COUNTY UNTIL 115 PM.  FLASH FLOODING 
HAS ALREADY OCCURRED IN HARTFORD COUNTY AND IS IMMINENT IN CENTRAL 
HAMPDEN COUNTY.

AS OF 1130 AM...SIGNIFICANT URBAN FLOODING HAS BEEN REPORTED IN 
BERLIN AND WEST HARTFORD WHERE SEVERAL CARS WERE STRANDED.  IN NEW 
BRITAIN...WILLOW BROOK WAS OUT OF ITS BANKS AND WAS FLOODING WILLOW 
BROOK PARK.

HEAVY RAIN WILL CONTINUE IN HARTFORD AND HAMPDEN COUNTIES UNTIL 1 
PM...THEN SHOULD LESSEN IN INTENSITY AS THE HEAVIER RAIN SHIFTS 
EAST.  RAINFALL TOTALS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES ARE EXPECTED THROUGHOUT MOST 
OF HARTFORD AND CENTRAL HAMPDEN COUNTIES...ESPECIALLY FROM BERLIN TO 
HARTFORD...SOUTHWICK AND SPRINGFIELD.

THIS WILL CONTINUE TO PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT URBAN FLOODING...AND WILL 
LIKELY CAUSE SMALLER RIVERS AND STREAMS TO RISE OUT OF THEIR BANKS.

MOST FLASH FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR IN AUTOMOBILES. NEVER ATTEMPT TO CROSS
BRIDGES OR ROADS WHERE WATER COVERS THE ROADWAY. IT ONLY TAKES A FOOT
OR TWO OF WATER TO WASH MOST CARS AWAY.

$$

DELLICARPINI

The office that day

Everything else NWS Boston/Norton, MA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Sep 28, 12:35 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	BOX	Capitol Planning Region	6 hr
Sep 28, 6:32 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	BOX	Capitol Planning Region	58 min

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Connecticut, 2003 Every flash flood warning in 2003

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.