Alert archive / North Dakota / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 96, NWS Bismarck, ND

July 18, 1997Hettinger County, North Dakota

NWS Bismarck, ND issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jul 18, 1997, 1:28 AM MDT for Hettinger County, North Dakota. It was in force for 62 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 18, 1997, 1:28 AM MDT (07:28 UTC)
Expired: Jul 18, 1997, 2:30 AM MDT
In force: 62 min
Issued by: NWS Bismarck, ND
Area: Whole counties

County Hettinger County, ND

The radar

The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 135 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 07:30 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 18, 1:45 AM MDT	Hail 1	New England, ND
Jul 18, 2:10 AM MDT	Thunderstorm Wind 65	Mott, ND	tree blown down on top of house

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 watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Jul 17, 11:00 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 00:00Z, 7.5 hours before the alert went out and 140 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: 1566 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -20 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1879 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 109 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 1.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KBIS 180730 RRA
SVRBIS
NDC041-180830-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
228 AM CDT (128 AM MDT) FRI JUL 18 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BISMARCK HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  330 AM CDT (230 AM MDT)
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN SOUTHWEST NORTH DAKOTA
 
   ...WESTERN HETTINGER COUNTY
 
AT 125 AM MDT A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WAS LOCATED 18 SOUTHWEST OF
DICKINSON...OR 10 MILES NORTHWEST OF NEW ENGLAND. THE SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM WAS MOVING EAST AT 30 MPH AND WILL MOVE THROUGH THE TOWNS
OF NEW ENGLAND AND POSSIBLY REGENT.
 
 
SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCE DAMAGING WIND IN EXCESS OF 55
MPH...DESTRUCTIVE HAIL...DEADLY LIGHTNING...AND VERY HEAVY RAIN.
FOR YOUR PROTECTION MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR
OF YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS.  HEAVY RAINS FLOOD ROADS QUICKLY SO
DON'T DRIVE INTO AREAS WHERE WATER COVERS THE ROAD.
 
 
VAN E<SS/VINING

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 17, 11:19 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	McKenzie	56 min
Jul 17, 11:23 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Golden Valley	52 min
Jul 17, 11:45 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Billings	60 min
Jul 18, 12:24 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Adams, Hettinger	51 min
Jul 18, 1:05 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Stark	55 min
Jul 18, 2:02 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Hettinger, Stark	58 min
Jul 18, 3:20 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Burleigh, Morton	55 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in North Dakota, 1997 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1997

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.