Alert archive / Kansas / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 118, NWS Wichita, KS

June 25, 1997Cowley County, Kansas

NWS Wichita, KS issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jun 25, 1997, 6:20 PM CDT for Cowley County, Kansas. It was in force for 45 min. 3 reports 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 25, 1997, 6:20 PM CDT (23:20 UTC)
Expired: Jun 25, 1997, 7:05 PM CDT
In force: 45 min
Issued by: NWS Wichita, KS
Area: Whole counties

County Cowley County, KS

The radar

The Wichita radar (KICT), 71 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:15 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
Jun 25, 6:39 PM CDT	Hail 0.75	Atlanta, KS
Jun 25, 6:50 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 52	Hackney, KS
Jun 25, 6:53 PM CDT	Hail 0.88	Arkansas City, KS

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 nearest sounding before it

Topeka, KS (KTOP), launched 12:00Z, 11.3 hours before the alert went out and 222 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: 216 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -176 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 829 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 49 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -49 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 37 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: -1.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

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 Wichita, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Jun 25, 3:28 PM CDT, 2 hours 52 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 25, 3:28 PM CDT, 2 hours 52 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
327 PM CDT WED JUN 25 1997

...SHORT TERM...
CNVTN ALG STNRY FNT IS THE MAIN PROBLEM THIS EVE...
TSRA CONTG TO DVLP ALG STNRY FNT AT MIDDAY WHERE ADAP SHOWD
FAVORABLE LO LVL MSTR CNVGNC WITH LI/S NR MINUS 9. XPCT CONTD
DVLPMT ALG WLD-CNU LN INTO THE EARLY EVE WHERE SFC DWPTS IN LWR 70S
WL CONT TO POOL ALG BNDRY WITH WK BUT MOIST SSWLY H8 FLO CONTG ABV
FNT. MAINLY PULSE TYPE STMS WITH GRTST CONCERN LCLY HVY RAFL. CNVTN
SHUD DMNSH WITH LOSS OF HTG AND AS LO LVL FLO/CNVGNC WKNS.
OTHWS...DO NOT SEE GOOD FORCING MECHANISM FOR CNVTN OVRNGT SO WL
GO DRY ACRS CNTRL/SCNTRL KS. TEMP-WISE...FWC SEEMS RSNBL AND WL
DEVIATE LTL.

KED

...LONG TERM...
WK UPR LVL RDG TO BUILD OVR RGN...BRINGING SUBSIDENCE TMRW.  WILL GO
DRY AND STICK CLOSE TO GUIDANCE ON TEMPS.  SEVERAL SUBTLE FEATURES
MAKE IT TEMPTING TO ADD POPS THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY.  FIRST...ALL
MDLS HINT AT WK VORT COMING UP THROUGH THE RDG FROM THE SW THURSDAY
NIGHT W/ETA BEING THE STRONGEST.  ALSO NOTICING SOME GOOD LLVL MSTR
CONVERGENCE SETTING UP WITH DVLPG LEE TROF IN SWRN NEBRASKA.  MAY
SEE TSRA COMPLEX SETTING UP IN SW NEBRASKA DURING THE EVENING WHICH
COULD PROPOGATE SOUTHWARD INTO LLJ.  HOWEVER...LLJ DIRECTION PROGGED
TO BE FROM THE SW AND THETAE RDG TO BE STRAIGHT N/S.  WITH LTL
STEERING FLOW TO THE SOUTHEAST AND THICKNESS PATTERN WEAK AND E/W
ORIENTED...DOUBT THIS POSSIBLE COMPLEX WILL MAKE IT VERY FAR EAST SO
WILL LEAVE POPS OUT.  ON FRIDAY...GOOD WARMUP EXPECTED AND WITH HIGH
LLVL MSTR...AMS SHOULD BE UNSTABLE AND JUST BARELY CAPPED.  MDLS ARE
TRYING TO BRING SFC TROF A BIT FARTHER EAST...BUT WITHOUT A KICKER
AND THE UPR LVL RDG IN PLACE...DONT SEE THIS HAPPENING.  WILL LEAVE
POPS OUT FOR NOW.  NEXT MDL RUN WILL BE IMPORTANT ONE....  AS FOR
TEMPS...AGAIN STUCK CLOSE TO MOS ALTHOUGH LEANED TOWARDS THE WARM
SIDE BASED ON 850 TEMPS FCSTD TO BE ABOVE +20 C.

MATT

RSL 063/087 067/093      05-01
SLN 065/089 069/090      05-00
ICT 067/090 069/092 068  05100
HUT 066/090 067/092      0510-
CNU 067/086 069/088      05410

The office that day

Everything else NWS Wichita, KS issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 24, 9:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Russell	60 min
Jun 24, 9:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Barton	64 min
Jun 24, 9:19 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Ellsworth, Lincoln	61 min
Jun 24, 10:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Lincoln	49 min
Jun 24, 10:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Ellsworth	63 min
Jun 25, 6:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Sumner	49 min
Jun 25, 6:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Elk	51 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Kansas, 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.