Alert archive / North Dakota / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 221, NWS Grand Forks, ND

September 16, 1997Grand Forks County, Steele County, North Dakota

NWS Grand Forks, ND issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Sep 16, 1997, 3:29 AM CDT for Grand Forks County, Steele County, North Dakota. It was in force for 31 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, 3:29 AM CDT (08:29 UTC)
Expired: Sep 16, 1997, 4:00 AM CDT
In force: 31 min
Issued by: NWS Grand Forks, ND
Area: Whole counties

Counties Grand Forks County, ND, Steele County, ND

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 27 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 08:29 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, 8.5 hours before the alert went out and 256 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 160828 RRA
SVRFAR
NDC035-091-160900-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
329 AM CDT TUE SEP 16 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  400 AM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS...
 
IN NORTHEAST NORTH DAKOTA
 
   ...SOUTHERN GRAND FORKS COUNTY
 
IN SOUTHEAST NORTH DAKOTA
 
   ...NORTHEASTERN STEELE COUNTY
 
AT 325 AM RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM 8 MILES EAST OF SHARON
OR 40 MILES SOUTHWEST OF GRAND FORKS. THIS STORM WAS MOVING NORTHEAST AT
40 MILES AN HOUR AND WILL AFFECT THE TOWN OF NORTHWOOD.
 
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 16, 3:13 AM CDT, 16 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 16, 3:13 AM CDT, 16 minutes before

FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
311 AM CDT TUE SEP 16 1997

FIRST PERIOD DISCUSSION...88D HAS LINES OF WAA SVR TSTRMS MOVG
INTO WRN CWFA. STRMS FEEDING OFF OF LLJ AS VAD WNDS IN EXCESS
OF 50KTS. NICE UPR LVL JET ENTERING PLNS FM WY AS NOTED ON
SAT WATER VAP IMAGERY. CD FNT REMAINS IN WRN ND. THETA-E/THCKNS
RIDGE FCST TO BE OVR THE RED RVR VLLY BY 12Z AND SHFT E THIS
MORN. QUICK LOOK AT 03Z RUC HAS ALL THE LIFT SHFTG OUT OF CWFA
BY LATE MORN. ADAP REMAINS TO HAVE GD MOIST FLUX CNVG IN CNTRL
ND AND WOULD XPCT THIS TO CONT SHFTG E THIS MORN. LATEST SPC
UPDATE XPCTS TSTRM ACTIVITY TO SETTLE DOWN A BIT. WL NEEDB TO
WATCH IF ANY NEW DEVELOPMNT OCCURS WITH FNT TO THE W. MOS
TEMPS AGAIN ARE REASONABLE. THINK HIGHS WL BE IN ARND 70 IN
BDE, ROX, HCO, BJI, DVL...LWR 70S AT GFK, CKN, TVF, FSE, DTL,
PKD...AND MID 70S FFM, FAR VLLY, CITY.

HOPPES

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, 2:00 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Barnes	30 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.