Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Flash Flood Warnings in 2004

Flash Flood Warning 39, NWS Cleveland, OH

September 17, 2004Erie County, Pennsylvania

NWS Cleveland, OH issued this flash flood warning at Sep 17, 2004, 1:15 PM EDT for Erie 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 outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Sep 17, 2004, 1:15 PM EDT (17:15 UTC)
Expired: Sep 17, 2004, 4:15 PM EDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Cleveland, OH
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County Erie County, PA

The radar

The Buffalo radar (KBUF), 138 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:16 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 12:00Z, 5.3 hours before the alert went out and 139 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 957 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 81 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 KCLE 171715
FFWCLE
PAC049-172015-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH
115 PM EDT FRI SEP 17 2004

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CLEVELAND HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  ERIE COUNTY IN NORTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA
  
* UNTIL 415 PM EDT

* AT 115 PM EDT...WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED A NEARLY 
STATIONARY AREA OF HEAVY RAINFALL ACROSS SOUTHERN ERIE COUNTY.  
RADAR ESTIMATES OF 2.5 INCHES HAVE BEEN RECORDED SINCE NOON... 
WITH ANOTHER ONE TO TWO INCHES POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON.    

* LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO   
WATTSBURG...WATERFORD...UNION CITY...GIRARD...EDINBORO...AND CORRY.  
SOME STREAMS IMPACTED INCLUDE TRIBUTARIES TO FRENCH CREEK IN 
SOUTHERN ERIE COUNTY.  

EXCESSIVE RUNOFF FROM THESE STORMS WILL CAUSE FLASH FLOODING OF 
CREEKS AND STREAMS...DRAINAGE DITCHES...HIGHWAYS AND UNDERPASSES. 
ADDITIONALLY...COUNTRY ROADS AND FARMLANDS ALONG THE BANKS OF CREEKS 
AND STREAMS AND OTHER LOW LYING AREAS ARE SUBJECT TO FLASH FLOODING. 
THE HEAVY RAINS COULD ALSO CAUSE ROCK AND MUDSLIDES IN STEEPER 
TERRAIN.

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. TURN AROUND... DONT DROWN.  MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND.

LAT...LON 4227 7975 4186 7956 4186 8053 4227 8026

$$

ASTIFAN

The office that day

Everything else NWS Cleveland, OH issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Sep 17, 12:12 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	CLE	Crawford	3 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Pennsylvania, 2004 Every flash flood 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.