Alert archive / Texas / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 17, NWS Corpus Christi, TX

September 23, 1997Nueces County, Texas

NWS Corpus Christi, TX issued this tornado warning at Sep 23, 1997, 2:39 PM CDT for Nueces County, Texas. It was in force for 66 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: Sep 23, 1997, 2:39 PM CDT (19:39 UTC)
Expired: Sep 23, 1997, 3:45 PM CDT
In force: 66 min
Issued by: NWS Corpus Christi, TX
Area: Whole counties

County Nueces County, TX

The radar

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 5 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:40 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

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), launched 12:00Z, 7.7 hours before the alert went out and 17 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: 2373 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -6 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 631 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 52 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 91 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KCRP 231940 RRA
TORCRP
TXC355-232045-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CORPUS CHRISTI TX
239 PM CDT TUE SEP 23 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CORPUS CHRISTI HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  345 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTY......
 
IN SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS
 
   ...NUECES COUNTY
 
 
...TORNADO REPORTED NEAR RODD FIELD AND HOLLY ROADS...
 
A POSSIBLE TORNADO WAS REPORTED BY THE PUBLIC IN THIS AREA.  THERE WAS
A THUNDERSTORM IN THIS AREA MOVING NE AT 15 MPH.
 
RESIDENTS IN THIS AREA AND THE FLOUR BLUFF AREA SHOULD REMAIN INDOORS
AND AWAY FROM WINDOWS.
 
THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM SITUATION.  ACT QUICKLY.  IF YOU ARE
IN THE PATH OF TZHIS TORNADO MOVE TO A SHELTER BELOW GROUND IF
AVAILABLE.  OTHERWISE...GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST
FLOOR POSSIBLE.  AVOID WINDOWS.  ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE HOMES
FOR A REINFORCED BUILDING OR GET INTO A DITCH OR CULVERT.

What forecasters said that day

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

NWS Corpus Christi, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before this tornado warning went out at Sep 23, 9:39 AM CDT, 5 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 23, 9:39 AM CDT, 5 hours before

COASTAL BEND FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CORPUS CHRISTI TX
935 AM CDT TUE SEP 23 1997

CURRENT KCRP 88D REF SHOWING WIDELY SCT RW/TRW FORMING ATTM.
MAJORITY OF THE PCPN REMAINS OFFSHORE AND IS MOVG NE.  NEXT S/W MOVG
ACROSS CENTRAL TX IS PRODUCING CLDS AND EVEN SOME HIGH BASED RW OVER
FAR WESTERN SECTIONS OF THE CWA.  MOST OF THIS CURRENTLY NOT REACHING
THE GROUND AS SEEN BY THE MTR'S FROM THIS REGION.  CURRENT FCST LOOKS
GOOD AND WILL NOT MAKE CHGS ON THIS UPDATE.

AS LOW PRESSURE STRENGTHENS AND MOVES NE...FRONT WILL STEADILY
PROGRESS SWRD AND SHD BE INTO MOST OF THE FA BY WED AFTERNOON.
ATMOSPHERE REMAINS UNSTABLE AND VERY MOIST.  12Z SOUNDING SHOWED A
CAPE OF 4006 J/KG...LI -6...K INDEX OF 34...PWAT 2.41 AND NO CAP.
WITH AFTERNOON HEATING WILL LIKELY SEE RW/TRW DEVELOP SO CURRENT POPS
LOOK GOOD.  QUICK EXAMINATION OF THE CROSS SECTION DATA REVEALED A
WND SHFT AT LRD AFTER 12Z WED...AND 18Z CRP/VCT.  BEST UVM NOTED
THROUGH 00Z WED.  THEN AGAIN NR THE FRONT.  PWAT VALUES REMAIN IN THE
2.00 PLUS RANGE THRU 48 HRS MAINLY OVER EASTERN SECTIONS OF THE FA.
BY 00Z THU 1.60 PWAT VALUES BEGIN TO MOVE SE TOWARDS THE FA.

AS FRONT ENCROACHES ON WED SCT RW/TRW AGAIN POSSIBLE ALONG THE FRONT.
S/SW WNDS MAY INHIBIT WIDESPREAD CONVECTION.  MRF HAS TEMPS BACK INTO
THE UPPER 50S...WHILE NGM/AVN SHOW LOWER 60S.  WILL AWAIT NEWEST DATA
FOR A TREND ON UPCOMING EVENTS.

MSL..73

The office that day

Everything else NWS Corpus Christi, TX issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Sep 23, 5:07 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	CRP	Refugio	3 hr
Sep 23, 5:26 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	CRP	Goliad	3 hr

Nearby

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