Alert archive / Kansas / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1986

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 1, NWS Wichita, KS

March 17, 1986Reno County, Kansas

NWS Wichita, KS issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Mar 17, 1986, 8:02 PM CST for Reno County, Kansas. It was in force for 58 min.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Mar 17, 1986, 8:02 PM CST (02:02 UTC)
Expired: Mar 17, 1986, 9:00 PM CST
In force: 58 min
Issued by: NWS Wichita, KS
Area: Whole counties

County Reno County, KS

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

Topeka, KS (KTOP), launched 00:00Z, 2.0 hours before the alert went out and 243 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 2274 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 56 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 184 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 430 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 severe thunderstorm 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, Mar 17, 5:08 PM CST, 2 hours 54 minutes before

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Special weather statement, Mar 17, 5:36 PM CST, 2 hours 26 minutes before

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Special weather statement, Mar 17, 6:08 PM CST, 1 hour 54 minutes before

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Special weather statement, Mar 17, 6:37 PM CST, 1 hour 25 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT AND RADAR SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
635 PM CST MON MAR 17 1986

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR THE NORTHEAST ONE QUARTER OF KANSAS
UNTIL 10 PM TONIGHT....

AT 630 PM...THUNDERSTORMS CONTINUED ACROSS THE CENTRAL AND EAST PARTS
OF KANSAS WITH SOME INCREASE IN INTENSITIES IN THE CENTRAL AREAS.

ONE AREA 55 MILES WIDE WAS WEST OF A LINE FROM BELLEVILLE TO 10 MILES
EAST OF GREAT BEND CONTINUING SOUTH TO THE OKLAHOMA BORDER NEAR AETNA
KANSAS. THE HEAVIEST STORMS WERE IN A NARROW BAND THAT RAN FROM NEAR
GREAT BEND SOUTH FOR ABOUT 50 MILES.  MOVEMENT WAS NORTH NORTHEAST AT
30 TO 35 MPH.

A 45 MILE WIDE AREA OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WAS SOUTHEAST OF A
LINE FROM JUST WEST OF ST JOSEPH MISSOURI TO TOPEKA TO 30 MILES EAST
OF WINFIELD.  THESE WERE MOVING EAST SOUTHEAST AT 20 MPH.
JT

Special weather statement, Mar 17, 7:06 PM CST, 56 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT AND RADAR SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
705 PM CST MON MAR 17 1986

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR THE NORTHEAST ONE QUARTER OF KANSAS
UNTIL 10 PM TONIGHT....

AT 705 PM...THUNDERSTORMS CONTINUED ACROSS THE CENTRAL AND EAST PARTS
OF KANSAS WITH SOME INCREASE IN INTENSITIES IN THE CENTRAL AREAS.

ONE AREA 55 MILES WIDE WAS WEST OF A LINE FROM BELLEVILLE TO NEAR
ELLSWORTH KANSAS TO JUST WEST OF PRATT TO ALVA OKLAHOMA. STRONGEST
THUNDERSTORMS WERE IN AN AREA 10 MILES WIDE FROM NEAR WILSON KANSAS
TO NEAR GREAT BEND TO JUST SOUTHWEST OF ST JOHNS KANSAS. BRIEF HEAVY
RAIN AND SMALL HAIL IS LIKELY WITH THIS LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS AS THEY
MOVE NORTHEAST AT 25 MILES AN HOUR.

IN EASTERN KANSAS AN AREA OF THUNDERSTORMS 35 MILES WIDE WAS CENTERED
FROM NEAR LAWRENCE KANSAS TO MELVERNE RESERVOIR TO NEAR SEADN KANSAS
WITH A FEW SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS NEAR CHANUTE KANSAS. THESE
WERE MOVING NORTHEAST AT 30 <MILES AN HOUR.
ELAND

Special weather statement, Mar 17, 7:40 PM CST, 22 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT AND RADAR SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
735 PM CST MON MAR 17 1986

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR THE NORTHEAST ONE QUARTER OF KANSAS
UNTIL 10 PM TONIGHT....

AT 730 PM...THUNDERSTORMS...SOME WITH VERY HEAVY RAINS AND POSSIBLE
HAIL WERE MOVING FROM SOUTHWEST KANSAS AND NORTH OKLAHOMA INTO
CENTRAL AND SOUTH CENTRAL KANSAS.

AT LEAST THREE VERY STRONG STORMS WERE LOCATED JUST SOUTHWEST OF
PRATT AND JUST WEST OF MEDICINE LODGE.  THESE STORMS WERE SHOWING
VERY HEAVY RAINS AND POSSIBLE HAIL.  THESE STORMS WERE PART OF AN
OVERALL AREA OF THUNDERSTORMS THAT WAS 75 MILES WIDE...ALL WEST OF
A LINE FROM THE NEBRASKA BORDER NEAR WASHINGTON KANSAS TO PRATT TOX
THE OKLAHOMA BORDER SOUTH OF ANTHONY.

MOVEMENT WAS TO THE NORTHEAST AT AROUND 35 MPH.
JT

The office that day

Everything else NWS Wichita, KS issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Mar 17, 9:01 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Butler, Sedgwick	29 min
Mar 17, 9:30 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Cowley	45 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Kansas, 1986 Every severe thunderstorm warning 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.