Alert archive / Kansas / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1986

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 49, NWS Topeka, KS

May 5, 1986Coffey County, Lyon County, Kansas

NWS Topeka, KS issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 5, 1986, 6:57 PM CDT for Coffey County, Lyon County, Kansas. It was in force for 63 min.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: May 5, 1986, 6:57 PM CDT (23:57 UTC)
Expired: May 5, 1986, 8:00 PM CDT
In force: 63 min
Issued by: NWS Topeka, KS
Area: Whole counties

Counties Coffey County, KS, Lyon 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 12:00Z, 12.0 hours before the alert went out and 77 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: 885 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 381 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 476 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 
TTAA00 KTOP 052357
SVRTOP
KSC139-031-111-045-060100-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS
657 PM CDT MON MAY 5 1986

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM 
WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 800 PM CDT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING 
COUNTIES OF

EAST CENTRAL KANSAS...OSAGE...NORTHERN COFFEY...SOUTHERN LYON AND 
 DOUGLAS

AT 650 PM THREE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WERE INDICATED BY RADAR OVER
EAST CENTRAL KANSAS.  THE FIRST WAS OVER MELVERN RESERVOIR.  ANOTHER
WAS 20 MILES SOUTH OF EMPORIA...AND A THIRD WAS 20 MILES SOUTHWEST
OF LAWRENCE.

REMEMBER A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAN PRODUCE DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS
OF 58 MPH..HAIL OF 3/4 INCaH DIAMETER OR GREATER..DEADLY LIGHTNING..
AND HEAVY RAINFALL THAT CAN QUICKLY FLOOD LOW LYING AREAS.

 THIS WARNING REPLACES THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING ISSUED AT
 6.17 PM FOR OSAGE AND NORTHEAST LYON COUNTIES.

SUNKEL

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, May 5, 5:34 PM CDT, 1 hour 23 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS
530 PM CDT MON MAY 5 1986

...THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOP OVER NORTHEAST AND EAST CENTRAL KANSAS...

AT 5.30 PM...A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS HAD DEVELOPED OVER NORTHEAST AND
EAST CENTRAL KANSAS.  THE LINE EXTENDED FROM PERRY RESERVOIR...THROUGH
OSAGE CITY TO EMPORIA.

ISOLATED HEAVY RAINS AND STRONG GUSTY WINDS MAY BE POSSIBLE WITH
SOME OF THESE THUNDERSTORMS.

THE LINE WILL REMAIN NEARLY STATIONARY DURING THE EARLY EVENING HOURS
WITH THE INDIVIDUAL THUNDERSTORMS MOVING NORTHEAST AT 35 MILES AN
HOUR.

SUNKEL

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 5, 6:17 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Lyon, Osage	58 min
May 5, 6:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Douglas, Osage	63 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.