Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Winter Weather Advisories in 2013

Winter Weather Advisory 21, NWS Pittsburgh, PA

March 18, 20138 counties in Pennsylvania

NWS Pittsburgh, PA issued this winter weather advisory at Mar 18, 2013, 3:44 PM EDT for 8 counties in Pennsylvania. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Mar 18, 2013, 3:44 PM EDT (19:44 UTC)
Expired: Mar 18, 2013, 10:11 PM EDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: NWS Pittsburgh, PA

Counties Armstrong County, PA, Butler County, PA, Clarion County, PA, Forest County, PA, Jefferson County, PA, Lawrence County, PA, Mercer County, PA, Venango County, PA

The radar

The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 83 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:46 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

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 12:00Z, 7.7 hours before the alert went out and 90 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: 3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 477 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 57 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 227 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 417 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this winter weather advisory went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Pittsburgh, PA wrote its last area forecast discussion before this winter weather advisory went out at Mar 18, 12:25 PM EDT, 3 hours 19 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 18, 12:25 PM EDT, 3 hours 19 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PITTSBURGH PA
1225 PM EDT MON MAR 18 2013

.SYNOPSIS...
STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL SPREAD A WINTRY MIX OF PRECIPITATION
OVER THE REGION TODAY. PERIODIC SNOW SHOWERS AND BELOW AVERAGE
TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED BY MID WEEK.

&&

.NEAR TERM /THROUGH TONIGHT/...
NOON UPDATE INCLUDES CHANGES TO PRECIPITATION BASED ON RADAR
TRENDS. WESTERN EDGE OF PRECIPITATION HAS REACHED THE OHIO-
PENNSYLVANIA BORDER...WITH PRECIP CONTINUING TO PUSH OFF TO THE
EAST. STILL EXPERIENCING ALL FOUR TYPES OF PRECIPITATION ACROSS
THE REGION...WITH A MIXED BAG OF PRECIP CONTINUING NORTH OF
PITTSBURGH. OUR OFFICE ITSELF SEEMS TO BE ON A DIVIDING LINE OF
SORTS...WITH A COUPLE HOURS OF FREEZING RAIN HAVING JUST CHANGED
OVER TO HEAVY SLEET RIGHT AS PRECIPITATION ENDS.

PRECIPITATION WILL DIMINISH DURING THE AFTERNOON...BUT AN AREA OF
LIGHT SCATTERED SHOWERS HAS REDEVELOPED OVER WESTERN OHIO AND
SHOULD MOVE EAST. ONLY SCATTERED COVERAGE WOULD BE EXPECTED THIS
AFTERNOON...BUT POPS WILL INCREASE AGAIN AS THE COLD FRONT ITSELF
MOVES THROUGH OVERNIGHT. WARM AIR IS SUPPOSED TO BE SURGING TO THE
NORTH...BUT HAS NOT DONE SO AS QUICKLY AS MODELS HAVE ANTICIPATED.
NEVERTHELESS...EXPECT MIXED PRECIPITATION TO GENERALLY BE DONE BY
THE EVENING HOURS...WITH RAIN/SNOW OVERNIGHT.

&&

.SHORT TERM /TUESDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT/...
GUSTY WRLY WNDS LIKELY BEHIND FROPA FOR TUE. SHOULD BE A LULL IN
ACTIVITY UNTIL THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF TROFS MOVE THRU TUE EVE
THRU WED NGT. THIS ALG WITH UPSLOPE FLOW AND LK ENHANCEMENT WL
KEEP CHCS FOR SHSN AND BLO AVG TEMPS THRU THE PD.

&&

.LONG TERM /THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY/...
BROAD UPR TROF WL LINGER OVR ERN CANADA AND NEW ENGLAND THRU
SAT...WITH BLO AVG TEMPS AND PERIODIC SHSN/SHRA CHCS THRU SAT. THE
UPR TROF MOVES EWD FOR SUN WITH MILDER TEMPS.

&&

.AVIATION /16Z MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY/...
A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL LIFT NORTHWARD INTO THE GREAT LAKES THIS
AFTERNOON INTO THE EVENING...BRINGING A WINTRY MIX OF
SNOW...SLEET...AND FREEZING RAIN TO AN END ACROSS THE TERMINALS.
PRECIPITATION WILL REMAIN ALL RAIN AT KMGW WITH A FEW LINGERING RAIN
SHOWERS POSSIBLE AT KZZV. SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN WILL COME TO AN
END EARLY THIS AFTERNOON AT KBVI/KPIT/KAGC. A FEW MORE HOURS OF
SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN WITH IFR RESTRICTIONS AT TIMES WILL BE
POSSIBLE AT KLBE. AT KFKL/KDUJ...WINTRY MIX OF PRECIPITATION WILL
LINGER INTO THE EARLY EVENING WITH IFR SNOW CHANGING OVER TO SLEET
AND FREEZING RAIN BEFORE IT COMES TO AN END.

CEILINGS WILL LOWER TO MVFR THIS AFTERNOON AND TO IFR BY 00Z ACROSS
MOST OF THE TERMINALS.

A COLD FRONT WILL CROSS THE AREA TONIGHT...WITH ANY LINGERING
PRECIPITATION BECOMING SNOW SHOWERS. WINDS AT 10-15KTS WITH GUSTS TO
20-25KTS WILL SHIFT FROM SOUTHEAST TO SOUTHWEST WITH THE FRONTAL
PASSAGE TONIGHT.

.OUTLOOK.../TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY/...
BEHIND THE COLD FRONT SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS MAY BRING BRIEF
RESTRICTIONS TUESDAY. AN UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM FOLLOWED BY A
NORTHWESTERLY FLOW OFF OF THE LAKES WILL THEN BRING POSSIBLE MVFR
RESTRICTIONS WITH A LOW CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS WEDNESDAY INTO FRIDAY.

&&

.PBZ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
MD...WINTER STORM WARNING UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING FOR MDZ001.
OH...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 2 PM EDT THIS AFTERNOON FOR
     OHZ041-050.
PA...WINTER STORM WARNING UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING FOR
     PAZ007>009-013>016-022-023.
     WINTER STORM WARNING UNTIL 10 PM EDT THIS EVENING FOR PAZ074-
     076.
     WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 2 PM EDT THIS AFTERNOON FOR
     PAZ020-021-029-073-075.
WV...WINTER STORM WARNING UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING FOR WVZ023-
     041.
     WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 2 PM EDT THIS AFTERNOON FOR
     WVZ001-002.

&&

Hazardous weather outlook, Mar 18, 2:03 PM EDT, 1 hour 41 minutes before

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In the hours before

Local storm report, Mar 18, 1:07 PM EDT, 2 hours 37 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PITTSBURGH PA
107 PM EDT MON MAR 18 2013

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0103 PM     SNOW             LEMONT FURNACE          39.91N  79.67W
03/18/2013  M2.0 INCH        FAYETTE            PA   PUBLIC

            SNOW IS MIXED WITH SLEET

&&

EVENT NUMBER PBZ1301324

Local storm report, Mar 18, 1:37 PM EDT, 2 hours 7 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PITTSBURGH PA
137 PM EDT MON MAR 18 2013

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0136 PM     SNOW             KNOX                    41.23N  79.54W
03/18/2013  M3.5 INCH        CLARION            PA   TRAINED SPOTTER

0136 PM     FREEZING RAIN    KNOX                    41.23N  79.54W
03/18/2013  E0.00 INCH       CLARION            PA   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

EVENT NUMBER PBZ1301325
EVENT NUMBER PBZ1301326

Local storm report, Mar 18, 2:21 PM EDT, 1 hour 23 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 18, 2:22 PM EDT, 1 hour 22 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 18, 3:38 PM EDT, 6 minutes before

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Local storm report, Mar 18, 3:39 PM EDT, 5 minutes before

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The office that day

Everything else NWS Pittsburgh, PA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Mar 18, 1:47 PM EDT	Wind Advisory	PBZ	Fayette, Westmoreland	6 hr

Nearby

Winter Weather Advisories in Pennsylvania, 2013 Every winter weather advisory in 2013

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.