Alert archive / West Virginia / Tornado Warnings in 2003

Tornado Warning 14, NWS Baltimore/Washington

July 9, 2003Jefferson County, West Virginia

NWS Baltimore/Washington issued this tornado warning at Jul 9, 2003, 1:40 PM EDT for Jefferson County, West Virginia. It was in force for 50 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jul 9, 2003, 1:40 PM EDT (17:40 UTC)
Expired: Jul 9, 2003, 2:30 PM EDT
In force: 50 min
Issued by: NWS Baltimore/Washington
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County Jefferson County, WV

The radar

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 48 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:41 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.

Did it verify

Not verified. The Iowa Environmental Mesonet's Cow found no qualifying storm report inside this tornado warning while it was in force. That is not proof nothing happened: reports are thin where few people live.

Cow counts a report within 15 km of the polygon while the warning was in force: a tornado for a tornado warning; hail of 1 inch or more, a gust of 58 mph or more or wind damage for a severe thunderstorm warning; a flash flood report for a flash flood warning.

The watch it was issued in

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

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Jul 9, 11:50 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), launched 12:00Z, 5.7 hours before the alert went out and 56 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: 150 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -174 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1569 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 69 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 
WFUS51 KLWX 091740
TORLWX
WVC037-091830-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
141 PM EDT WED JUL 9 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR
  JEFFERSON COUNTY IN THE PANHANDLE OF WEST VIRGINIA

* UNTIL 230 PM EDT.

* AT 141 PM EDT...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WITH
  STRONG ROTATION 4 MILES SOUTHWEST OF MIDDLEWAY...MOVING EAST AT 25
  MPH. THIS DANGEROUS STORM COULD PRODUCE A TORNADO AT ANY TIME.

* SOME LOCATIONS NEAR THE PATH OF THIS STORM INCLUDE...CHARLES TOWN
  AND RANSON.

IF YOU ARE NEAR THE PATH OF THIS STORM...TAKE COVER NOW IF NO
UNDERGROUND SHELTER IS AVAILABLE MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE
LOWEST FLOOR. MOBILE HOMES AND VEHICLES SHOULD BE ABANDONED FOR MORE
SUBSTANTIAL SHELTER. AVOID WINDOWS

IN ADDITION TO THE TORNADO THREAT...LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS CAN
BE EXPECTED WITH THIS STORM. GO TO A SAFE PLACE NOW

LAT...LON 3935 7797 3925 7802 3917 7786 3915 7784
          3931 7775

$$
MANNING

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this tornado 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 tornado warning went out at Jul 9, 10:40 AM EDT, 3 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 9, 10:40 AM EDT, 3 hours before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
1040 AM EDT WED JUL 9 2003

.UPDATED...SFC BNDRY ACRS PA/OHIO VLY. AHD OF THIS BNDRY...PLENTY
OF INSTAB IN PLACE. MODIFIED SNDG TO FCST CONDS YIELD LI TO -7 AND
B+ TO 3K. SO...IF TSTMS CAN BE TRIGGERED...THERE IS PLENTY TO
SUSTAIN THEM.  IN FACT...TSTMS FIRING UP ALREADY IN WVA...MVG EWD.
SO...GOING FCST IN GOOD SHAPE OVRALL. POP STRUCTURE GOOD AS IT
CRRNTLY STANDS. WL BUMP TEMP IN MTNS UP A FEW. QSTN WHETHER MAXT IN
CNTRL FOOTHILLS-NRN PIEDMONT CAN GET INTO LWR 90S. HWVR...ETA/GFS
MOS AND RUC-80 SFC FIELDS ALL INDICATE IT CAN. SOME GRIDS UPDTD...
BUT JUST A MINOR TEMP CHG IN A CPL OF PLACES.  HOPE TO GET ALL
PRODUCTS OUT THE DOOR BY 11AM.  -HTS

TODAY-TONIGHT
LATEST SFC ANALYSIS SHOWS WEAK CDFNT EXTENDS ACROSS NRN PA AND IS
FCST TO MOVE SLOWLY SWD AND REACH THE MASON DIXON LINE BY 00Z THU.
VERY DEEP MOISTURE WITH PWS IN EXCESS OF 2.0 INS AND WEAK SHORTWAVE
ENERGY MOVING ALG THE SRN EDGE OF THE WESTERLIES WILL RESULT IN SCT
TO NMRS TSTMS TODAY. HIGHEST POPS TODAY IN THE NORTH CLOSER TO SFC
BDRY AND ALG TRACK OF SEWD MOVING VORT COMING OUT OF LK MI. MAIN
THREAT TODAY SHOULD BE VERY HEAVY RAINFALL WITH PWS IN THE 2.1-2.3
INS RANGE. SVR WX NOT ANTICIPATED DUE TO WEAK SHEAR (0-6KM SHEAR
<25KTS) AND WARM AIR ALOFT. COULD BE SOME ISOLD FLOODING PROBLEMS
TODAY GIVEN HIGH PW AIR MASS BUT THREAT NOT WIDESPREAD ENOUUGH TO
ISSUE A FLOOD WATCH. IN ADDITION...FFG IS ALSO PRETTY HIGH. MAX
TEMPS TODAY SIMILAR TO YESTERDAYS WITH HIGHS MID 80S NORTH UPPER 80S
DCA TO LOWER 90S BY CHO AND EZF. MAV MOS LOOKS TOO HOT AGAIN AND
DISREGARDED.

TONIGHT...EXPECT SHOWERS AND STORMS TO DISSIPATE BY MIDNIGHT WITH
PATCHY FOG DEVELOPING BY MORNING GIVEN EXPECTED WET GROUND...VERY
HIGH DEWPOINTS IN THE 70S AND LIGHT WINDS.

ROSA

LONG TERM...THU-TUE
NOT A LOT OF CHANGES WITH THE CURRENT PATTERN WI TEMPS REMAINING
NEAR SEASONAL NORMS. FRONT WILL REMAIN AROUND THE FA INTO EARLY
FRIDAY WITH A FEW SHORT WVS SO CONTINUING A CHC OF TSTMS EACH
DAY/NIGHT. MDLS STILL INDICATE A STRONGER SHORT WV WL MOVE DOWN AM
THE WRN N AMERICA RD ON FRI AND WL HELP PUSH THE FRONT THRU THE CWA
BY LATE FRI. THAT WILL HELP CLEAR/DRY US OUT SAT AND INTO EARLY SUN
FOR A GOOD WEEKEND. NEXT SHORT WV AND CHC OF TSTM MAY AFFECT REGION
LATE SUN/MON. ND

.LWX...
DC...NONE.
MD...NONE.
VA...NONE.
WV...NONE.

Hazardous weather outlook, Jul 9, 11:54 AM EDT, 1 hour 46 minutes before

DCZ001-MDZ002>007-009>011-013-014-016>018-VAZ021-025>031-036>042-
050>057-WVZ048>055-100800-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
1154 AM EDT WED JUL 9 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR MARYLAND WEST OF THE CHESAPEAKE
BAY AND EAST OF GARRETT COUNTY...THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA...NORTHERN
VIRGINIA...THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL SHENANDOAH VALLEY...AND THE
EASTERN PANHANDLE OF WEST VIRGINIA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY

THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS OUTLOOKED THE ENTIRE AREA AS HAVING
A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER THROUGH 6 PM. THE PRIMARY THREATS ARE
THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS UP TO 70 MPH...AND HAIL TO ONE INCH IN
DIAMETER.

SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL BE LIKELY.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jul 9, 8:28 AM EDT, 5 hours 12 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
828 AM EDT WED JUL 09 2003

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0948 PM    CUMBERLAND                MD   WIND DAMAGE
07/08/03   ALLEGANY                       TREES DOWN

1024 PM    WILEY FORD                WV   WIND DAMAGE
07/08/03   MINERAL                        A FEW TREES DOWN.

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 8, 9:42 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Mineral	78 min
Jul 9, 12:09 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Mineral	36 min
Jul 9, 12:19 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Hampshire	56 min
Jul 9, 1:32 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Jefferson	58 min
Jul 9, 1:37 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Jefferson	53 min
Jul 9, 2:41 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Hampshire	49 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in West Virginia, 2003 Every tornado warning in 2003 Tornadoes 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.