Alert archive / Virginia / Mesoscale Discussions in 2004

Mesoscale Discussion 956

May 27, 2004Frederick County, Garrett County, Montgomery County, Maryland; 39 counties in Virginia; 8 counties in West Virginia

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at May 27, 2004, 9:01 PM EDT for Frederick County, Garrett County, Montgomery County, Maryland; 39 counties in Virginia; 8 counties in West Virginia. It was in force for 89 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 27, 2004, 9:01 PM EDT (01:01 UTC)
Expired: May 27, 2004, 10:30 PM EDT
In force: 89 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 50 counties

Frederick County, MD, Garrett County, MD, Montgomery County, MD, Albemarle County, VA, Arlington County, VA, Augusta County, VA, Caroline County, VA, City of Alexandria, VA, City of Charlottesville, VA, City of Fairfax, VA, City of Falls Church, VA, City of Fredericksburg, VA, City of Harrisonburg, VA, City of Lexington, VA, City of Manassas, VA, City of Manassas Park, VA, City of Staunton, VA, City of Waynesboro, VA, City of Winchester, VA, Clarke County, VA, Culpeper County, VA, Fairfax County, VA, Fauquier County, VA, Fluvanna County, VA, Frederick County, VA, Greene County, VA, Highland County, VA, King George County, VA, Loudoun County, VA, Louisa County, VA, Madison County, VA, Nelson County, VA, Orange County, VA, Page County, VA, Prince William County, VA, Rappahannock County, VA, Rockbridge County, VA, Rockingham County, VA, Shenandoah County, VA, Spotsylvania County, VA, Stafford County, VA, Warren County, VA, Berkeley County, WV, Grant County, WV, Hampshire County, WV, Hardy County, WV, Jefferson County, WV, Mineral County, WV, Pendleton County, WV, Tucker County, WV

The radar

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 85 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:03 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

Roanoke, VA (KRNK), launched 00:00Z, 1.0 hours before the alert went out and 192 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: 122 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -39 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1332 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 57 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 103 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 168 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.1
Supercell composite: 1.9

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
May 27, 9:53 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Buchanan, Dickenson	97 min
May 27, 10:30 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bland, Buchanan, Dickenson, Giles, Montgomery, Russell and 4 more	6 hr
May 28, 12:17 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bland, Buchanan, Dickenson, Giles, Russell, Tazewell and 2 more	58 min
May 27, 10:39 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Braxton, Cabell, Clay, Kanawha, Putnam, Randolph and 2 more	96 min
May 28, 12:29 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barbour, Braxton, Cabell, Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge and 21 more	3 hr

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Virginia, 2004 Mesoscale Discussions in West Virginia, 2004 Mesoscale Discussions in Maryland, 2004 Every mesoscale discussion 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.