Alert archive / North Dakota / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 220, NWS Grand Forks, ND

September 16, 1997Barnes County, North Dakota

NWS Grand Forks, ND issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Sep 16, 1997, 2:00 AM CDT for Barnes County, North Dakota. It was in force for 30 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 16, 1997, 2:00 AM CDT (07:00 UTC)
Expired: Sep 16, 1997, 2:30 AM CDT
In force: 30 min
Issued by: NWS Grand Forks, ND
Area: Whole counties

County Barnes County, ND

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 87 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 07:02 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
Sep 15, 11:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 00:00Z, 7.0 hours before the alert went out and 201 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: 353 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -297 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1197 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 114 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 282 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KFAR 160659 RRA
SVRFAR
NDC003-160730-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
200 AM CDT TUE SEP 16 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  230 AM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN SOUTHEAST NORTH DAKOTA
 
   ...NORTHERN BARNES COUNTY
 
AT 158 AM CDT A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WAS LOCATED JUST NORTH OF ECKELSON
OR 20 MILES WEST OF VALLEY CITY MOVING NORTHEAST AT 40 MILES AN HOUR.
THIS STORMS WILL AFFECT THE TOWNS OF LEAL...ROGERS AND DAZEY.
 
THE LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS OVER EASTERN BARNES COUNTY HAD WEAKENED AND
WERE NO LONGER SEVERE.
 
REMEMBER SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY DO
PRODUCE TORNADOES WITH LITTLE OR NO ADVANCE WARNING.
EWENS

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 Grand Forks, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Sep 15, 9:00 PM CDT, 5 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 15, 9:00 PM CDT, 5 hours before

FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
900 PM CDT MON SEP 15 1997

FCST CHALLENGE FOR RMDR OF TONIGHT CONTS TO BE TSTM DVLPMNT/SVR
POTENTIAL.  LATEST SFC ANAL SHOWS LO IN ERN MT VCNTY GGW...WITH WRM FNT
XTNDG SE FM LOW...THEN ACRS CNTRL SD.  WV SAT LOOP SHOWS GOOD SW-NE
ALIGNED JET MOVG INTO SWRN WY WITH NGM...ETA...AND 21Z RUC ALL PICKING
UP THIS FEATURE.  ALTHO MODELS DIFFER SOMEWHAT IN RESOLVING THE
SPECIFICS...THEY ALL SHOW THIS JET CRASHING INTO RIDGE OVR NXT 12
HRS...WITH H5 RIDGE AXIS PROPOGATING QUICKLY TO EAST DURG PD. MODELS
SHOW STG UPPER LVL DIVGERGENCE ASSTD WITH JET MOVG INTO NCNTRL ND BY
06Z...THEN SPRDG E-SE OVR RED RIVER VALLEY BY 12Z.  GIVEN THIS
SCENARIO...FEEL CURRENT ZONES HAVE GOOD HANDLE ON TIMING.  AS FAR AS
SEVERE GOES...QUICK LOOK AT 00Z SOUNDINGS FM BIS AND ABR AS WELL AS
LOOKING AT 12Z GRIDDED DATA...CAN SEE NO REASON TO DROP MENTION OF SVR.
WL ALSO LOOK AT POSSIBILITY OF EXTNDG MENTION OF SVR INTO WESTERNMOST
SLICE OF NW MN COUNTIES SINCE IF MCS DVLPS FEEL IT WILL CONT INTO THIS
AREA BEFORE END OF FIRST PD.  FOR TEMPS...ACRS MN CWA WL DROP TEMPS
VCNTY BDE A NOTCH AS SINCE WARM AIR STILL OFF TO SOUTH.  CONVERSELY...
MAY ALSO BUMP UP DTL/FFM A BIT.  ONLY MINOR TWEAKS FOR ND SIDE ON
UPDATE.

STRAGER

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Sep 16, 1:19 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Barnes	41 min
Sep 16, 1:28 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Benson, Eddy	47 min
Sep 16, 1:41 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Ramsey	49 min
Sep 16, 3:29 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Grand Forks, Steele	31 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in North Dakota, 1997 Every 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.