Alert archive / Colorado / Tornado Warnings in 1986

Tornado Warning 3, NWS Goodland, KS

May 15, 1986Kit Carson County, Colorado

NWS Goodland, KS issued this tornado warning at May 15, 1986, 6:05 PM MDT for Kit Carson County, Colorado. It was in force for 29 min.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued
May 15, 1986, 6:05 PM MDT (00:05 UTC)
Expired
May 15, 1986, 6:34 PM MDT
In force
29 min
Issued by
NWS Goodland, KS
Area
Whole counties

County Kit Carson County, CO

The radar

The WSR-88D network and its archive begin in 1991, so there is no radar volume for this alert.

The nearest sounding before it

Denver, CO (KDEN), launched 00:00Z, 0.1 hours before the alert went out and 83 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-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 1986-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 0 joules per kilogram.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 1986-05-16The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -41 square meters per square second.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
1041 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
154 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

What forecasters said that day

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

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 15, 5:46 PM MDT, 19 minutes before
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GOODLAND KS
645 PM CDT WED MAY 15 1986

AT 635 PM CDT...A LARGE AREA OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS OVER NORTHEAST
COLORADO WAS MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH AND HAS NOW MOVED INTO EXTREME
NORTHWEST KANSAS IN NORTHWEST CHEYENNE COUNTY. A VERY INTENSE STORM WAS
LOCATED IN YUMA COUNTY COLORADO IN THE VICINITY OF IDALIA. THIS STORM
WILL MOVE EAST INTO SOUTHWEST CHEYENNE COUNTY AND NORTHERN SHERMAN COUNTY
OF NORTHWEST KANSAS BETWEEN 7PM AND 730PM CDT. RADAR INDICATED THAT HAIL
WAS PRESENT IN THIS STORM AT 635PM CDT.

ANOTHER AREA OF THUNDERSTORMS OVER EAST CENTRAL COLORADO WAS MOVING NORTHEAST
AT 25 MPH AND SHOULD BE INTO WEST CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST KANSAS BY 8PM CDT.

DORSEY

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Colorado, 1986Every tornado warning in 1986Tornadoes in 1986

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.