Alert archive / North Dakota / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1996

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 113, NWS Bismarck, ND

August 2, 1996Williams County, North Dakota

NWS Bismarck, ND issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Aug 2, 1996, 5:53 PM CDT for Williams County, North Dakota. It was in force for 67 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Aug 2, 1996, 5:53 PM CDT (22:53 UTC)
Expired: Aug 2, 1996, 7:00 PM CDT
In force: 67 min
Issued by: NWS Bismarck, ND
Area: Whole counties

County Williams County, ND

The radar

The Minot AFB radar (KMBX), 193 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:56 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

The nearest sounding before it

Glasgow Intl Airport, MT (KGGW), launched 12:00Z, 10.9 hours before the alert went out and 231 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: 3814 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 65 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 KISN 022255
SVRISN
NDC105-030000-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILLISTON ND
553 PM CDT FRI AUG 2 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN WILLISTON HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  700 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN NORTHWEST NORTH DAKOTA
 
   ...WESTERN WILLIAMS COUNTY
 
AT 545 PM RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM 19 MILES NORTHWEST OF
WILLISTON. THIS STORM WAS MOVING TO THE NORTHEAST AT 15 MPH.
 
A TORNADO WATCH IS ALSO IN EFFECT FOR THE WARNED AREA.  REMEMBER
SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY DO PRODUCE TORNADOES
WITH LITTLE OR NO ADVANCE WARNING.  REMAIN CALM BUT BE ALERT TO
RAPIDLY CHANGING WEATHER CONDITIONS.

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, Aug 2, 5:26 PM CDT, 27 minutes before

NDZ003>005-011>013-019>023-033>037-040>048-050-051-030100-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE  BISMARCK ND
525 PM CDT FRI AUG 2 1996

...THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING OVER WESTERN AND CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA...

AT 515 PM CDT...STRONG THUNDERSTORMS HAVE DEVELOPED IN SOUTH CENTRAL
NORTH DAKOTA...45 MILES SOUTH OF BISMARCK IN EASTERN SIOUX COUNTY. THESE
STORMS WILL MOVE EAST INTO EMMONS COUNTY NEAR THE TOWNS OF LINTON AND
STRASBURG BY 615 PM.

AN AREA OF STRONG THUNDERSTORMS IN EASTERN MONTANA AND WILL MOVE INTO
WESTERN NORTH DAKOTA BY 7 PM CDT.  WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR
SEVERE WEATHER THIS EVENING. IF YOU ARE PLANNING OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES BE
PREPARED AND ON THE LOOKOUT VFOR THREATENING WEATHER.

ABELING

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 2, 6:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Stark	67 min
Aug 2, 6:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Golden Valley	30 min
Aug 2, 6:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Billings, McKenzie	32 min
Aug 2, 6:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Bowman	67 min
Aug 2, 6:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Mountrail	61 min
Aug 2, 6:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Billings	61 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in North Dakota, 1996 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1996

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; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.