Alert archive / New York / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 2004

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 20, NWS Buffalo, NY

May 20, 2004Genesee County, New York

NWS Buffalo, NY issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 20, 2004, 8:29 PM EDT for Genesee County, New York. It was in force for 31 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: May 20, 2004, 8:29 PM EDT (00:29 UTC)
Expired: May 20, 2004, 9:00 PM EDT
In force: 31 min
Issued by: NWS Buffalo, NY
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County Genesee County, NY

The radar

The Buffalo radar (KBUF), 61 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:32 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

Buffalo Intl Airport, NY (KBUF), launched 00:00Z, 0.5 hours before the alert went out and 58 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: 1163 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -9 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 875 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 48 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 284 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 339 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 2.2
Supercell composite: 9.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

580 
WUUS51 KBUF 210029
SVRBUF
NYC037-210100-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BUFFALO NY
829 PM EDT THU MAY 20 2004

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BUFFALO HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
  GENESEE COUNTY IN WESTERN NEW YORK

* UNTIL 900 PM EDT

* AT 827 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  SEVERE THUNDERSTORM.  THIS STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR BYRON...OR ABOUT
  6 MILES EAST OF BATAVIA...AND WAS MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR...
  LE ROY AT 840 PM EDT...

DOPPLER RADAR HAS INDICATED SOME WEAK ROTATION WITHIN THIS STORM.
WHILE NOT IMMEDIATELY LIKELY...A TORNADO MAY STILL DEVELOP. IF A
TORNADO IS SPOTTED...ACT QUICKLY AND MOVE TO A PLACE OF SAFETY IN A
STURDY STRUCTURE...SUCH AS A BASEMENT OR SMALL INTERIOR ROOM.

REPORT SEVERE WEATHER TO THE NEAREST LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY. THEY
WILL RELAY YOUR REPORT TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST
OFFICE IN BUFFALO.

LAT...LON 4310 7796 4306 7795 4303 7791 4296 7791
          4295 7794 4288 7794 4292 7801 4297 7821
          4312 7813

$$

SAGE

The office that day

Everything else NWS Buffalo, NY issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 20, 8:40 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BUF	Livingston	65 min
May 21, 12:56 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	BUF	Allegany	2 hr
May 21, 2:25 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BUF	Cattaraugus, Chautauqua	50 min
May 21, 2:28 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BUF	Chautauqua	47 min
May 21, 5:45 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	BUF	Chautauqua	3 hr

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in New York, 2004 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 2004

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.