Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Mesoscale Discussions in 2003

Mesoscale Discussion 2285

August 27, 200324 counties in Pennsylvania

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Aug 27, 2003, 11:48 AM EDT for 24 counties in Pennsylvania. It was in force for 87 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Aug 27, 2003, 11:48 AM EDT (15:48 UTC)
Expired: Aug 27, 2003, 1:15 PM EDT
In force: 87 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 24 counties

Adams County, PA, Allegheny County, PA, Beaver County, PA, Bedford County, PA, Cambria County, PA, Columbia County, PA, Cumberland County, PA, Dauphin County, PA, Fayette County, PA, Franklin County, PA, Fulton County, PA, Greene County, PA, Huntingdon County, PA, Juniata County, PA, Lancaster County, PA, Lebanon County, PA, Northumberland County, PA, Perry County, PA, Schuylkill County, PA, Snyder County, PA, Somerset County, PA, Washington County, PA, Westmoreland County, PA, York County, PA

The radar

The State College radar (KCCX), 88 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 15:51 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 watches that followed

Watches SPC issued over any of the same counties within four hours of this discussion.

The nearest sounding before it

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 12:00Z, 3.8 hours before the alert went out and 127 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: 1234 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -53 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 728 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 107 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 172 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.2
Supercell composite: 1.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

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SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 26, 9:20 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Fayette, Greene, Washington	6 hr
Aug 26, 10:18 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Fayette, Greene	57 min
Aug 27, 6:11 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bedford, Fayette, Fulton, Greene, Somerset	2 hr
Aug 27, 9:23 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Centre, Cumberland and 8 more	2 hr
Aug 27, 9:40 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Adams, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Blair and 31 more	5 hr
Aug 27, 2:05 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Fayette, Greene, Washington, Westmoreland	5 hr
Aug 27, 3:09 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Bedford, Franklin, Fulton, Somerset	66 min
Aug 27, 3:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Bedford, Franklin, Fulton, Somerset	7 hr
Aug 27, 5:03 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bedford, Fayette, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Somerset and 1 more	87 min
Aug 27, 6:56 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams	64 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Pennsylvania, 2003 Every mesoscale discussion 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.