Alert archive / Nebraska / Tornado Warnings in 1996

Tornado Warning 15, NWS North Platte, NE

July 7, 1996Cherry County, Nebraska

NWS North Platte, NE issued this tornado warning at Jul 7, 1996, 5:00 PM MDT for Cherry County, Nebraska. It was in force for 30 min. 2 reports came from inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued: Jul 7, 1996, 5:00 PM MDT (23:00 UTC)
Expired: Jul 7, 1996, 5:30 PM MDT
In force: 30 min
Issued by: NWS North Platte, NE
Area: Whole counties

County Cherry County, NE

The radar

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 79 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:00 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.

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
Jul 7, 5:10 PM MDT	Hail 1	Valentine, NE
Jul 7, 5:30 PM MDT	Hail 0.75	Wood Lake, NE

NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.

The nearest sounding before it

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), launched 12:00Z, 11.0 hours before the alert went out and 163 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: 1921 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -125 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -52 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 KLBF 072301
TORLBF
NEC031-072330-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTH PLATTE NE
600 PM CDT (500 PM MDT) SUN JUL 7 1996

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NORTH PLATTE NE HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 630 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN NORTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA

   ...CENTRAL CHERRY COUNTY
 
AT 600 PM CDT...A POSSIBLE TORNADO WAS INDICATED BY NORTH PLATTE
DOPPLER RADAR 22 MILES SOUTHWEST OF VALENTINE OR 3 MILES NORTHEAST OF
MERRITT RESERVOIR MOVING EAST SOUTHEAST AT 41 MPH. THE TORNADO IS
EXPECTED TO REMAIN IN OPEN COUNTRY....BUT SHOULD PASS IN THE
VICINITY OF MERRITT RESERVOIR BETWEEN 600 PM CDT AND 615 PM CDT
(500 PM MDT AND 515 PM MDT).

A TORNADO WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1000 PM CDT (900 PM MDT).
 
IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE...IMMEDIATELY GO TO A NEARBY REINFORCED BUILDING.
AS A LAST RESORT...TAKE SHELTER IN A CULVERT...DITCH OR LOW SPOT AND
COVER YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR HANDS.

MICHELS

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, Jul 7, 1:55 PM MDT, 3 hours 5 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTH PLATTE NE
255 PM CDT SUN JUL 7 1996

...MAIN CONCERN IS TSTMS...HOW LONG AND HOW BAD...
TSTMS ALREADY FIRING OVR SW SD AND MOVG TO THE SOUTHEAST AND ALREADY
SVR. THESE TSTMS ON THE NOSE OF HIGH DEW PT AXIS AND STORMS MAY
DMNSH AS THEY MOVE INTO SLIGHTLY DRIER AIR.  WOULD EXPECT THE MAIN
THREAT TO COME LATER THIS EVENING OR EARLY TNGT WHEN SFC FRONT MOVES
INTO THE REGION.  COLD FRONT DEVELPING OVR ND-ERN MT THIS AFTN AND SHD
QUICKLY DROP INTO TROF FROM ERN SD INTO NWRN NE.  MOIST...UNSTABLE AIR
IN PLACE AHEAD OF FRONT WITH UPSLOPE CONTINUING.  NGM WOULD LOCATE FRONT
FROM VTN TO LBF BY 06Z.  88D VAD INDICATES PROFILE BECOMING MORE FAVORABLE
FOR SUPERCELL/ORGANIZED SVR.

GOING FCST FOR TNGT LOOKS GOOD...POPS MAYBE A LITTLE STRONG.  GOTTA GO...
SVR TSTMS APPROACHING CWA.

GEB

The office that day

Everything else NWS North Platte, NE issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 7, 3:33 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Cherry	62 min
Jul 7, 3:53 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	LBF	Cherry	32 min
Jul 7, 4:25 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	LBF	Cherry	35 min
Jul 7, 4:53 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Hooker	62 min
Jul 7, 5:03 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Cherry	62 min
Jul 7, 5:09 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Grant	66 min
Jul 7, 5:20 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Thomas	65 min
Jul 7, 5:35 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	McPherson	65 min
Jul 7, 5:38 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Brown	62 min
Jul 7, 5:52 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Hooker	63 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Nebraska, 1996 Every tornado warning in 1996 Tornadoes 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.