Alert archive / West Virginia / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2016
Severe Thunderstorm Watch 449
The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at Aug 17, 2016, 2:02 PM EDT for Allegany County, Garrett County, Washington County, Maryland; 20 counties in Virginia; 35 counties in West Virginia. It was in force for 5 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Aug 17, 2016, 2:02 PM EDT (18:02 UTC)
- Expired
- Aug 17, 2016, 6:44 PM EDT
- In force
- 5 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 1 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 58 counties
Allegany County, MD, Garrett County, MD, Washington County, MD, Alleghany County, VA, Augusta County, VA, Bath County, VA, Botetourt County, VA, City of Buena Vista, VA, City of Covington, VA, City of Harrisonburg, VA, City of Lexington, VA, City of Staunton, VA, City of Waynesboro, VA, City of Winchester, VA, Clarke County, VA, Craig County, VA, Frederick County, VA, Highland County, VA, Page County, VA, Rockbridge County, VA, Rockingham County, VA, Shenandoah County, VA, Warren County, VA, Barbour County, WV, Berkeley County, WV, Boone County, WV, Braxton County, WV, Calhoun County, WV, Clay County, WV, Fayette County, WV, Gilmer County, WV, Grant County, WV, Greenbrier County, WV, Hampshire County, WV, Hardy County, WV, Jefferson County, WV, Kanawha County, WV, Lewis County, WV, Logan County, WV, McDowell County, WV, Mercer County, WV, Mineral County, WV, Mingo County, WV, Monroe County, WV, Morgan County, WV, Nicholas County, WV, Pendleton County, WV, Pocahontas County, WV, Preston County, WV, Raleigh County, WV, Randolph County, WV, Roane County, WV, Summers County, WV, Taylor County, WV, Tucker County, WV, Upshur County, WV, Webster County, WV, Wyoming County, WV
The radar
The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 118 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:01 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.
What SPC expected
The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.
- Two or more tornadoes
- 20%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 10%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 40%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 10%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 5%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 5%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 60%
Warnings issued inside it
5 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 17, 2:54 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RLX | Raleigh, Wyoming | 36 min |
| Aug 17, 4:15 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RNK | Amherst, Bedford, Botetourt, Campbell, Rockbridge, City of Lynchburg | 60 min |
| Aug 17, 4:29 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RNK | Greenbrier, Monroe | 61 min |
| Aug 17, 5:44 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RNK | Bath | 23 min |
| Aug 17, 6:31 PM EDT | Flash Flood Warning | LWX | Rockingham | 3 hr |
Discussions around it
SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.
The nearest sounding before it
Roanoke, VA (KRNK), launched 12:00Z, 6.0 hours before the alert went out and 152 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 398 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -74 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 845 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -7 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 20 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 17, 1:25 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Garrett | 95 min |
| Aug 17, 4:26 PM EDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Charles and 13 more | 64 min |
Nearby
Severe Thunderstorm Watches in West Virginia, 2016Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Virginia, 2016Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Maryland, 2016Every severe thunderstorm watch in 2016
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.