Alert archive / Montana / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 39, NWS Billings, MT

June 18, 1997Big Horn County, Montana

NWS Billings, MT issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jun 18, 1997, 4:03 PM MDT for Big Horn County, Montana. It was in force for 62 min. 1 report 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
Jun 18, 1997, 4:03 PM MDT (22:03 UTC)
Expired
Jun 18, 1997, 5:05 PM MDT
In force
62 min
Issued by
NWS Billings, MT
Area
Whole counties

County Big Horn County, MT

The radar

The Billings radar (KBLX), 99 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:07 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

TimeReportWhereRemark
Jun 18, 4:45 PM MDTHail 0.75Hardin, MT

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

Riverton, WY (KRIW), launched 12:00Z, 10.1 hours before the alert went out and 272 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-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Riverton, WY at 12:00Z on 1997-06-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 0 joules per kilogram.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Riverton, WY at 12:00Z on 1997-06-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -83 square meters per square second.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
1885 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-83 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Billings, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Jun 18, 2:00 PM MDT, 2 hours 3 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 18, 2:00 PM MDT, 2 hours 3 minutes before
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In the hours before

Local storm report, Jun 18, 1:34 PM MDT, 2 hours 29 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

The office that day

Everything else NWS Billings, MT issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Jun 17, 10:28 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZGolden Valley, Stillwater62 min
Jun 17, 10:53 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZYellowstone47 min
Jun 17, 11:33 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZYellowstone62 min
Jun 18, 3:23 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZYellowstone62 min
Jun 18, 3:25 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZYellowstone65 min
Jun 18, 4:59 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZBig Horn61 min
Jun 18, 5:02 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZBig Horn63 min
Jun 18, 5:39 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZCarbon61 min
Jun 18, 5:40 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZCuster65 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Montana, 1997Every 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.