Alert archive / West Virginia / Tornado Watches in 2005

Tornado Watch 761

August 30, 20054 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Aug 30, 2005, 1:55 PM EDT for 4 states. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Aug 30, 2005, 1:55 PM EDT (17:55 UTC)
Expired: Aug 30, 2005, 9:00 PM EDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 42 counties

Floyd County, KY, Harlan County, KY, Johnson County, KY, Knott County, KY, Leslie County, KY, Letcher County, KY, Martin County, KY, Perry County, KY, Pike County, KY, Greene County, TN, Hancock County, TN, Hawkins County, TN, Sullivan County, TN, Washington County, TN, Buchanan County, VA, City of Bristol, VA, City of Norton, VA, Dickenson County, VA, Lee County, VA, Russell County, VA, Scott County, VA, Smyth County, VA, Tazewell County, VA, Washington County, VA, Wise County, VA, Boone County, WV, Clay County, WV, Fayette County, WV, Greenbrier County, WV, Kanawha County, WV, Lincoln County, WV, Logan County, WV, McDowell County, WV, Mercer County, WV, Mingo County, WV, Nicholas County, WV, Putnam County, WV, Raleigh County, WV, Roane County, WV, Summers County, WV, Wayne County, WV, Wyoming County, WV

The radar

The Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 82 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:56 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.

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), launched 12:00Z, 5.9 hours before the alert went out and 260 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: 84 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -42 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 642 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 120 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 167 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
WWUS20 KWNS 301755
SEL1  
SPC WW 301755
KYZ000-TNZ000-VAZ000-WVZ000-310100-

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 761
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
155 PM EDT TUE AUG 30 2005

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF 

       EASTERN KENTUCKY
       EXTREME NORTHEASTERN TENNESSEE
       EXTREME WESTERN VIRGINIA
       SOUTHWESTERN HALF OF WEST VIRGINIA

EFFECTIVE THIS TUESDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 155 PM UNTIL 900
PM EDT.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 0.5 INCH IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS
TO 70 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 50 STATUTE MILES
EITHER SIDE OF A LINE FROM 50 MILES WEST OF BRISTOL TENNESSEE TO
40 MILES EAST OF CHARLESTON WEST VIRGINIA.  FOR A COMPLETE
DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE ASSOCIATED WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE
(WOUS64 KWNS WOU1).

REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR
TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA.
PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THREATENING
WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE
WARNINGS.

OTHER WATCH INFORMATION...CONTINUE...WW 760...

DISCUSSION...THE REMNANTS OF KATRINA ARE MOVING NEWD ACROSS
KY...WITH A NARROW DRY SLOT EXTENDING NEWD FROM ERN TN TO SWRN WV. 
CLOUD BREAKS ARE ALLOWING SURFACE HEATING/DESTABILIZATION WITHIN THE
DRY SLOT...AND LOW-LEVEL SHEAR WILL BE STRONGEST ALONG THIS SAME
CORRIDOR IN ADVANCE OF THE SURFACE LOW AND ALONG A NE-SW INVERTED
TROUGH TROUGH. IT APPEARS THE COMBINATION OF SHEAR/INSTABILITY WILL
BE SUFFICIENT FOR SMALL SUPERCELLS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A COUPLE OF
TORNADOES AND ISOLATED DAMAGING GUSTS THROUGH THE AFTERNOON/EVENING.

AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 0.5 INCH. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND
GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 400.
MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 21035.


...THOMPSON

370,0835 385,0812 374,0801 355,0824

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 30, 12:59 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allen, Barren, Butler, Caldwell, Calloway, Christian and 15 more	3 hr
Aug 29, 11:05 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bradley, Franklin, Grundy, Hamilton, Lincoln, McMinn and 5 more	115 min
Aug 30, 4:39 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Bradley, Carter, Cocke, Grainger, Greene and 18 more	2 hr
Aug 30, 5:50 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Anderson, Bledsoe, Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Claiborne and 30 more	8 hr
Aug 30, 8:47 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Bledsoe, Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Claiborne and 28 more	118 min
Aug 30, 12:42 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Carter, Hancock, Hawkins, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi and 1 more	2 hr
Aug 30, 1:25 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Carter, Johnson, Unicoi	8 hr
Aug 30, 4:37 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Johnson	83 min
Aug 30, 6:35 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Albemarle, Amherst, Appomattox, Arlington, Augusta, Bath and 47 more	5 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in West Virginia, 2005 Tornado Watches in Virginia, 2005 Tornado Watches in Kentucky, 2005 Every tornado watch in 2005

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.