Alert archive / North Dakota / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 34, NWS Grand Forks, ND

June 22, 1997Barnes County, North Dakota

NWS Grand Forks, ND issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jun 22, 1997, 7:05 PM CDT for Barnes County, North Dakota. It was in force for 25 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 22, 1997, 7:05 PM CDT (00:05 UTC)
Expired: Jun 22, 1997, 7:30 PM CDT
In force: 25 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 00:07 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

Time	Report	Where	Remark
Jun 22, 7:20 PM CDT	Hail 0.75	Valley City, ND

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 watch it was issued in

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

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Jun 22, 4:30 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	7 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 00:00Z, 0.1 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: 705 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -269 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1478 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 55 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 240 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 353 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 7.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

313 
WUUS1 KFAR 230007 RRA
SVRFAR
NDC003-230030-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
705 PM CDT SUN JUN 22 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  730 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN SOUTHEAST NORTH DAKOTA
 
   ...BARNES COUNTY
 
AT 705 PM CDT RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM 10 MILES WEST OF
VALLEY CITY OR 5 MILES SOUTHEAST OF SANBORN. MOVEMENT WAS NORTHEAST AT
35 MPH. THE STORMS WILL BE 10 MILES NORTHEAST OF VALLEY CITY BY 735 PM
CDT.
 
REMEMBER SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY DO
PRODUCE TORNADOES WITH LITTLE OR NO ADVANCE WARNING.
 
HOPPES

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 Jun 22, 3:01 PM CDT, 4 hours 4 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 22, 3:01 PM CDT, 4 hours 4 minutes before

FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
300 PM CDT SUN JUN 22 1997

FIRST PERIOD DISCUSSION...MODEL FCST STRM MOVEMENT TO TURN FM E TO
THE NE TDY AS FLO ALFT TURNS FM W TO SW. HOWEVER CURRENT STRMS
IN SD HAVE BEEN TURNING TO THE RIGHT. STRMS XPCTD TO DEVELOP
ALNG WM FNTL BNDRY IN NRN SD. MODELS MOV FNTL BNDRY SLOLY NWD
OVRNT.  SUSPECT STRMS WL CONT THE SAME TREND OF BEING RIGHT
MOVERS ARND RING OF FIRE AS WM FNT MOVS NE. MODEL HAVE LOWEST LI`S
IN CNTRL ND OVRNT. THINK STRMS WL FIRE UP IN S CNTRL ND THIS EVE
AND MOV E/SE AND FIRE IN NE ND LATER TNGT. SHUD BE IN WM SECTOR TNGT
WITH QUITE HI DWPTS. OVRNT LOWS SHUD BE ARND 70 IN FAR, VLLY CITY...
UPR 60S IN GFK, CKN, FSE, TVF, DTL, PKD...MID 60S IN BJI, ROX ,BDE.

HOPPES

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Jun 22, 1:20 PM CDT, 5 hours 45 minutes before

MNZ001>009-013>017-022>024-027>032-040-NDZ006>008-014>016-024-
026>030-038-039-049-052-053-231200-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED...
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
120 PM CDT SUN JUN 22 1997

...THERE IS A MODERATE RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS FOR THE SOUTHERN
RED RIVER VALLEY THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT...
...THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS FOR THE NORTHERN RED
RIVER VALLEY THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT...

A MODERATE RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS EXISTS ACROSS THE SOUTHERN RED
RIVER VALLEY THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.  THIS INCLUDES THE CITES OF
FARGO...VALLEY CITY...LISBON...WAHPETON...FERGUS FALLS...DETROIT
LAKES...MAYVILLE...AND PARK RAPIDS.  THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE
THUNDERSTORMS FOR THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT FOR THE REMAINDER OF
EASTERN NORTH DATKOA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA INCLUDING GRAND
FORKS...DEVILS LAKE...BAUDETTE...AND BEMIDJI.

A WARM FRONT WILL MOVE NORTHWARD TO THE NORTH AND SOUTH DAKOTA
BORDER BY THIS EVENING.  NORTH OF THIS FRONT...STRONG SOUTH WINDS
WILL BRING VERY WARM AND MOIST AIR INTO THE RED RIVER VALLEY. DEW
POINTS BY THIS AFTERNOON WILL RANGE FROM THE UPPER 50S NEAR THE
CANADIAN BORDER TO THE UPPER 60S IN THE SOUTHERN VALLEY.  THESE DEW
POINTS WILL COMBINE WITH TEMPERATURES IN THE MID TO UPPER 80S TO
PRODUCE VERY UNSTABLE CONDITIONS.  LOW LEVEL WIND SHEAR OVER THE AREA
WILL ALSO BE IN PLACE.  THE COMBINATION OF HIGH INSTABILITY AND LARGE
WIND SHEAR WILL BE CONDUCIVE TO THE FORMATION OF SUPERCELLS OVER THE
REGION THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.  THEREFORE...LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING
WIND AND TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE.

THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP ALONG AND NORTH OF THE FRONT.  WITH AFTERNOON
TEMPERATURES IN THE 80S...NUMEROUS THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP ACROSS
THE SOUTHERN VALLEY WITH SOME OF THESE STORM BEING SEVERE.  FARTHER
NORTH...THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE MORE SCATTERED THIS AFTERNOON.

BY MIDNIGHT...THE WARM FRONT IS EXPECTED TO EXTEND FROM JAMESTOWN TO
WADENA. SOUTH OF THE FRONT...THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY IS EXPECTED TO
DIMINISH.  NORTH OF THE FRONT...THUNDERSTORMS WILL BECOME MORE NUMEROUS
ACROSS THE NORTHERN RED RIVER VALLEY DURING THE EVENING AND OVERNIGHT.
OVERNIGHT TEMPERATURES WILL BE IN THE 60S AND SEVERE STORMS WILL BE
MORE ISOLATED.  HOWEVER...THE LOW LEVEL WIND SHEAR WILL STILL
BE CONDUCIVE FOR SUPERCELL DEVELOPMENT AND THE RISK OF TORNADOES
TONIGHT.

THIS IS A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SITUATION.  PERSONS ACROSS THE ENTIRE
RED RIVER VALLEY SHOULD BE AWARE OF RAPIDLY CHANGING CONDITIONS THIS
AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT AS THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOP.  STAYED TUNED TO LOCAL
TV...RADIO...AND CABLE FOR FURTHER STATEMENTS ON THIS SITUATION.

HOPPES

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 22, 7:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Barnes, Cass	29 min
Jun 22, 8:02 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Cass	28 min
Jun 22, 8:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Steele, Traill	34 min
Jun 22, 8:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Cass	27 min
Jun 22, 9:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Richland	26 min
Jun 22, 10:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Richland	33 min
Jun 22, 11:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Ramsey	31 min
Jun 23, 12:56 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Cass	34 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.