Alert archive / North Dakota / Tornado Warnings in 1997
Tornado Warning 27, NWS Bismarck, ND
NWS Bismarck, ND issued this tornado warning at Aug 31, 1997, 7:16 PM CDT for Stutsman County, North Dakota. It was in force for 44 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
- Aug 31, 1997, 7:16 PM CDT (00:16 UTC)
- Expired
- Aug 31, 1997, 8:00 PM CDT
- In force
- 44 min
- Issued by
- NWS Bismarck, ND
- Area
- Whole counties
County Stutsman County, ND
The radar
The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 138 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:20 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 31, 7:17 PM CDT | Tornado F0 | Jamestown, ND | brief touchdown |
| Aug 31, 8:00 PM CDT | Hail 0.75 | Buchanan, ND |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 31, 4:30 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 00:00Z, 0.3 hours before the alert went out and 134 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1215 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -7 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1935 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 71 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 115 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 3.2
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
000 TTAA00 KBIS 010016 RRA TORBIS NDC093-010100- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND 716 PM CDT SUN AUG 31 1997 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BISMARCK HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 800 PM CDT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION... IN EAST CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA ...EASTERN STUTSMAN COUNTY AT 713 PM CDT RADAR INDICATED A CLUSTER OF TORNADIC THUNDERSTORMS. ONE AREA OF STRONG ROTATION WAS 2 MILES NORTH OF WINDSOR OR 20 MILES WEST OF JAMESTOWN. THE SECOND AREA OF GOOD ROTATION WAS LOCATED AT ELDRIDGE OR 8 MILES WEST OF JAMESTOWN. BOTH AREAS ARE MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH. TOWNS IN THE PATH OF THIS CLUSTER ARE WINDSOR...ELDRIDGE AND JAMESTOWN. IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...THE SAFEST PLACE IS A BASEMENT. GET UNDER A WORKBENCH OR PIECE OF STURDY FURNITURE. IF NO BASEMENT IS AVAILABLE...SEEK SHELTER IN AN INTERIOR ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET ON THE LOWEST FLOOR. USE BLANKETS...PIL"LOWS... OR CUSHIONS TO COVER YOUR BODY. AVOID WINDOWS. THIS SLOW MOVING STORM MAY ALSO CAUSE FLOODING OF SMALL STREAMS AND UNDERPASSES. HINTZ/LEBLANG
The office that day
Everything else NWS Bismarck, ND issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 31, 7:31 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Burleigh, Kidder | 44 min |
| Aug 31, 7:57 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Stutsman | 33 min |
| Aug 31, 8:13 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Kidder | 47 min |
| Aug 31, 8:27 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Burleigh | 48 min |
| Aug 31, 8:57 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Stutsman | 33 min |
| Aug 31, 9:06 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Kidder | 69 min |
| Aug 31, 9:13 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Burleigh | 47 min |
| Aug 31, 9:31 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Logan, Stutsman | 44 min |
| Aug 31, 10:04 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | LaMoure | 41 min |
| Aug 31, 10:41 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Dickey | 64 min |
| Aug 31, 10:47 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | LaMoure | 43 min |
| Sep 1, 12:49 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Stutsman | 41 min |
| Sep 1, 12:54 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Logan, McIntosh | 51 min |
| Sep 1, 1:31 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Stutsman | 14 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in North Dakota, 1997Every tornado warning in 1997Tornadoes 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.