Alert archive / North Dakota / Tornado Warnings in 1988

Tornado Warning 2, NWS Bismarck, ND

May 7, 1988Stutsman County, North Dakota

NWS Bismarck, ND issued this tornado warning at May 7, 1988, 5:43 PM CDT for Stutsman County, North Dakota. It was in force for 62 min.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: May 7, 1988, 5:43 PM CDT (22:43 UTC)
Expired: May 7, 1988, 6:45 PM CDT
In force: 62 min
Issued by: NWS Bismarck, ND
Area: Whole counties

County Stutsman County, ND

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

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 12:00Z, 10.7 hours before the alert went out and 134 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: 1880 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 44 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -10 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
TTAA00 KBIS 072243
TORBIS
NDC093-072345-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED/EBS ACTIVATION REQUESTED 
TORNADO WARNING 
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
543 PM CDT SAT MAY 7 1988

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WARNING 
EFFECTIVE UNTIL 645 PM CDT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTY

   IN THE EAST CENTRAL PART OF NORTH DAKOTA
      NORTHERN STUTSMAN

AT 535 PM CDT A PILOT REPORTED A TORNADO 18 MILES WEST OF
JAMESTOWN MOVING NORTH AT 35 MPH.

IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO...GO TO A BASEMENT SHELTER
IF AVAILABLE...OTHERWISE TO A CENTRAL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST
FLOOR...STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS.  ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE HOMES.

THIS STORM IS ACCOMPANIED BY DANGEROUS LIGHTNING...LARGE HAIL...
VERY HEAVY RAIN...AND DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS.

 RSL

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 7, 3:08 PM CDT, 2 hours 35 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
305 PM CDT SAT MAY 7 1988

...TORNADO WATCH IN EFFECT FOR SOUTHEAST NORTH DAKOTA TIL 7 PM CDT...

A TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR SOUTHEAST NORTH DAKOTA UNTIL 7 PM
CDT THIS EVENING. THE VERY MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIR IN THE SOUTHEAST
COULD SET OFF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING.

NO SEVERE WEATHER HAS YET BEEN REPORTED...BUT SOME OF THE SCATTERED
THUNDERSTORMS IN THE SOUTHEAST HAVE BECOME QUITE STRONG.

THUNDERSTORMS HAVE ALSO BEEN DEVELOPING WESTWARD AND TO THE NORTH. AT
3 PM CDT...BISMARCK RADAR DECTECTED SOME STRONG THUNDERSTORMS ABOUT
35 MILES SOUTH OF DEVILS LAKE. THESE STORMS WERE MOVING NORTH ABOUT
140 MPH...AND THEY LIKELY CONTAIN GUSTY WINDS AND POSSIBLY SMALL
HAIL.

PERSONS IN EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA SHOULD STAY TUNED FOR THE LATEST
IN WEATHER STATEMENTS AND FORECASTS.
LLM

The office that day

Everything else NWS Bismarck, ND issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 6, 8:04 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Hettinger, Stark	26 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in North Dakota, 1988 Every tornado warning in 1988 Tornadoes in 1988

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.