Alert archive / Nebraska / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 26, NWS North Platte, NE

August 21, 1997Perkins County, Nebraska

NWS North Platte, NE issued this tornado warning at Aug 21, 1997, 6:06 PM MDT for Perkins County, Nebraska. It was in force for 49 min. 5 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: Aug 21, 1997, 6:06 PM MDT (00:06 UTC)
Expired: Aug 21, 1997, 6:55 PM MDT
In force: 49 min
Issued by: NWS North Platte, NE
Area: Whole counties

County Perkins County, NE

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
Aug 21, 6:08 PM MDT	Tornado F0	Venango, NE	The tornado touched down and remained in open fields north of Venango.
Aug 21, 6:12 PM MDT	Hail 1	Venango, NE
Aug 21, 6:21 PM MDT	Tornado F0	Venango, NE	The tornado traveled over open country south of Venango into northern Chase county or 7 miles north of Lamar. The weak tornado did little if any damage.
Aug 21, 6:30 PM MDT	Hail 1.75	Grant, NE
Aug 21, 6:45 PM MDT	Hail 2.75	Grant, NE

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
Aug 21, 6:00 PM MDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), launched 00:00Z, 0.1 hours before the alert went out and 93 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: 2266 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -22 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1174 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 49 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 113 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 301 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 3.0
Supercell composite: 15.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KLBF 220005 RRA
TORLBF
NEC135-220055-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTH PLATTE NE
706 PM CDT (606 PM MDT) THU AUG 21 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NORTH PLATTE NE HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 655 PM MDT (755 PM CDT)
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN SOUTHWESTERN NEBRASKA

   ...PERKINS COUNTY
 
AT 605 PM MDT...A DEVELOPING TORNADO WAS INDICATED BY NORTH PLATTE
DOPPLER RADAR 12 MILES SOUTH SOUTHEAST OF OGALLALA OR 8 MILES NORTH
NORTHEAST OF GRANT MOVING SOUTH AT 25 MPH.

THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR...
  GRANT                        BY 620 PM MDT
  MADRID                       BY 620 PM MDT

THIS REPLACES THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR PERKINS COUNTY.
 
IF YOU ARE CAUGHT OUTSIDE...SEEK SHELTER IN A NEARBY REINFORCED
BUILDING.  AS A LAST RESORT...SEEK SHELTER IN A CULVERT...DITCH OR
LOW SPOT AND COVER YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR HANDS.


SLM

The office that day

Everything else NWS North Platte, NE issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 21, 6:24 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	LBF	Chase	46 min
Aug 21, 7:11 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	LBF	Chase	44 min
Aug 21, 7:15 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	LBF	Hayes	65 min
Aug 21, 8:19 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Lincoln	61 min
Aug 21, 8:48 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	LBF	Lincoln	32 min
Aug 21, 9:00 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	LBF	Frontier	65 min
Aug 22, 6:57 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Cherry	63 min
Aug 22, 8:26 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Cherry	64 min
Aug 22, 9:20 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Hooker, Thomas	60 min
Aug 22, 5:20 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	LBF	Thomas	35 min
Aug 22, 5:26 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	LBF	Logan	34 min
Aug 22, 5:31 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Keya Paha	64 min
Aug 22, 5:59 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Logan	61 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Nebraska, 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive.