Alert archive / Missouri / Tornado Warnings in 1996

Tornado Warning 42, NWS St. Louis, MO

December 23, 1996Iron County, Washington County, Missouri

NWS St. Louis, MO issued this tornado warning at Dec 23, 1996, 1:40 PM CST for Iron County, Washington County, Missouri. It was in force for 35 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: Dec 23, 1996, 1:40 PM CST (19:40 UTC)
Expired: Dec 23, 1996, 2:15 PM CST
In force: 35 min
Issued by: NWS St. Louis, MO
Area: Whole counties

Counties Iron County, MO, Washington County, MO

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 108 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:39 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

Springfield, MO (KSGF), launched 12:00Z, 7.7 hours before the alert went out and 282 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: 237 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -72 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 818 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 68 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 414 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 442 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.4
Supercell composite: 1.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KSTL 231941 RRA
TORSTL
MOC221-093-232015-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
140 PM CST MON DEC 23 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN ST LOUIS HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  215 PM CST
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS...
 
IN EAST CENTRAL MISSOURI
 
   ...SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON COUNTY
 
IN SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
 
   ...NORTH IRON COUNTY
 
AT 140 PM...RADAR INDICATED A TORNADIC THUNDERSTORM NEAR THE DENT IRON
COUNTY LINE JUST WEST OF BIXBY. THE STORM WAS MOVING NORTHEAST AT
35 MPH AND WILL MOVE THROUGH THE TOWNS OF BIXBY...COURTOIS AND POTOSI.
 
 
 
IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM...TAKE COVER IN A BASEMENT
OR INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST LEVEL.
 
 
 
DF/ST

The office that day

Everything else NWS St. Louis, MO issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Dec 23, 10:27 AM CST	Tornado Warning	LSX	Crawford, Washington	63 min
Dec 23, 10:59 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Montgomery, Warren	61 min
Dec 23, 11:03 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Lincoln	42 min
Dec 23, 11:19 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Jefferson	41 min
Dec 23, 11:43 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Lincoln	62 min
Dec 23, 12:10 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Franklin	65 min
Dec 23, 2:15 PM CST	Tornado Warning	LSX	Saint Francois, Washington	30 min
Dec 23, 2:38 PM CST	Tornado Warning	LSX	Sainte Genevieve	37 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Missouri, 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.