Alert archive / Illinois / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 23, NWS Quad Cities, IA

May 18, 1997Warren County, Illinois

NWS Quad Cities, IA issued this tornado warning at May 18, 1997, 9:07 PM CDT for Warren County, Illinois. It was in force for 48 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: May 18, 1997, 9:07 PM CDT (02:07 UTC)
Expired: May 18, 1997, 9:55 PM CDT
In force: 48 min
Issued by: NWS Quad Cities, IA
Area: Whole counties

County Warren County, IL

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 85 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:09 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 watch it was issued in

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

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
May 18, 5:30 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Davenport, (KDVN), launched 00:00Z, 2.1 hours before the alert went out and 86 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: 2339 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -25 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1544 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 49 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 145 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 165 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.0
Supercell composite: 9.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KMLI 190208 RRA
TORMLI
ILC187-190255-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
907 PM CDT SUN MAY 18 1997

* TORNADO WARNING FOR
  WARREN COUNTY - IN WEST CENTRAL ILLINOIS

* UNTIL 955 PM CDT
 
* THIS TORNADO IS CURRENTLY EXPECTED TO REMAIN OVER RURAL AREAS

* AT 909 PM CDT...A DEVELOPING TORNADO WAS INDICATED BY QUAD CITIES
  IA DOPPLER RADAR 13 MILES SOUTHWEST OF GALESBURG OR IN THE
  VICINITY OF GREENBUSH MOVING EAST AT 35 MPH.
 
THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM. ACT QUICKLY. GO TO A SHELTER BELOW
GROUND IF AVAILABLE. OTHERWISE GO TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE
LOWEST FLOOR. AVOID WINDOWS. ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE HOMES...TAKE
COVER IN A REINFORCED BUILDING OR GET INTO A DITCH OR CULVERT.

HENDRICKS

The office that day

Everything else NWS Quad Cities, IA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 18, 7:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Bureau	50 min
May 18, 8:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Rock Island	49 min
May 18, 8:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Henderson	52 min
May 18, 8:13 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Henry	47 min
May 18, 8:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Warren	49 min
May 18, 8:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Bureau	47 min
May 18, 8:46 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Bureau	49 min
May 18, 8:50 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Henderson	45 min
May 18, 8:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Mercer	36 min
May 18, 9:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Putnam	31 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Illinois, 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.