Alert archive / Arkansas / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1988

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 39, NWS Memphis, TN

May 22, 1988Craighead County, Arkansas

NWS Memphis, TN issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 22, 1988, 4:05 PM CDT for Craighead County, Arkansas. It was in force for 55 min.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: May 22, 1988, 4:05 PM CDT (21:05 UTC)
Expired: May 22, 1988, 5:00 PM CDT
In force: 55 min
Issued by: NWS Memphis, TN
Area: Whole counties

County Craighead County, AR

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

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), launched 12:00Z, 9.1 hours before the alert went out and 127 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: 3569 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 213 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, May 22, 3:11 PM CDT, 54 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TUPELO MS
310 PM CDT SUN MAY 22 1988

...TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 159 IN EFFECT FOR ALL OF NORTH MISSISSIPPI...

AT 300 PM NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED SCATTERED SHOWERS
WITH EMBEDDED STRONG THUNDERSTORMS OVER NORTHERN MISSISSIPPI. THE
STRONGEST ACTIVITY WAS 5 MILES SOUTHWEST OF WATER VALLEY IN YALOBUSHA
COUNTY AND 8 MILES SOUTHEAST OF GRENADA IN GRENADA COUNTY OF NORTHERN
MISSISSIPPI.

MOVEMENT WAS TO THE NORTHEAST AT 35 MILES AN HOUR.

WITH THE PASSAGE OF THESE STORMS STRONG GUSTY WINDS...FREQUENT
LIGHTNING...HEAVY RAINS AND POSSIBLE LARGE HAIL CAN BE EXPECTED.

PEOPLE IN NORTHEAST MISSISSIPPI NEED TO BE WEATHER ALERT AND TAKE
APPROPRIATE ACTION WHEN THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES.

The office that day

Everything else NWS Memphis, TN issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 22, 4:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Tippah, Union	31 min
May 22, 4:42 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MEG	DeSoto	48 min
May 22, 5:05 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MEG	Alcorn, Tippah	25 min
May 22, 5:24 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Shelby, Tipton	51 min
May 22, 5:29 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MEG	Shelby, Tipton	61 min
May 22, 5:37 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Lauderdale	53 min
May 22, 5:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	McNairy	47 min
May 22, 6:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	McNairy	28 min
May 22, 6:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	McNairy	31 min
May 22, 3:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Cross	51 min
May 22, 3:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Poinsett	50 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Arkansas, 1988 Every severe thunderstorm warning 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.