Alert archive / North Dakota / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 28, NWS Bismarck, ND

August 31, 1997Stutsman County, North Dakota

NWS Bismarck, ND issued this tornado warning at Aug 31, 1997, 8:57 PM CDT for Stutsman County, North Dakota. It was in force for 33 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, 8:57 PM CDT (01:57 UTC)
Expired: Aug 31, 1997, 9:30 PM CDT
In force: 33 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 02:00 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
Aug 31, 9:15 PM CDT	Tornado F1	Jamestown, ND	a tornado picked up 33 empty aluminium coal cars and set them on their side about 5 feet from the track. Each car weighed about 22 tons.
Aug 31, 9:30 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 55	Streeter, 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, 2.0 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.

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: 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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KBIS 010157 RRA
TORBIS
NDC093-010230-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
857 PM CDT SUN AUG 31 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BISMARCK HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  930 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN EAST CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA
 
   ...SOUTHWESTERN STUTSMAN COUNTY
 
AT 855 PM CDT BISMARCK RADAR INDICATED A POSSIBLE TORNADO 8 MILES
NORTHWEST OF STREETER...OR 45 MILES SOUTHWEST OF JAMESTOWN...MOVING EAST
AT 25 MPH.
 
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF STREETER.
 
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 S<HELTER IN AN INTERIOR ROOM
SUCH AS A CLOSET ON THE LOWEST FLOOR.  USE BLANKETS...PILLOWS...
OR CUSHIONS TO COVER YOUR BODY.  AVOID WINDOWS.
 
RL/TSW

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 31, 7:16 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Stutsman	44 min
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, 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, 1997 Every tornado warning in 1997 Tornadoes 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.