Alert archive / Texas / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 1, NWS Lake Charles, LA

January 23, 1997Newton County, Texas

NWS Lake Charles, LA issued this tornado warning at Jan 23, 1997, 4:48 PM CST for Newton County, Texas. It was in force for 27 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: Jan 23, 1997, 4:48 PM CST (22:48 UTC)
Expired: Jan 23, 1997, 5:15 PM CST
In force: 27 min
Issued by: NWS Lake Charles, LA
Area: Whole counties

County Newton County, TX

The radar

The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 84 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:51 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
Jan 23, 4:45 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), launched 12:00Z, 10.8 hours before the alert went out and 91 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: 115 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -36 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 553 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 45 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 80 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 104 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

963 
WFUS1 KLCH 232254 RRA
TORLCH
TXC351-232315-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
448 PM CST THU JAN 23 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAKE CHARLES HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  515 PM CST
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN SOUTHEAST TEXAS
 
   ...NEWTON COUNTY
 
AT 446 PM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
A TORNADIC THUNDERSTORM JUST NORTH OF THE CITY OF NEWTON.
MOVEMENT WAS NORTHEAST AT 25 MPH. THE TOWN OF BURKEVILLE IS
IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM.
 
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.

The office that day

Everything else NWS Lake Charles, LA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 23, 4:29 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Newton	61 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Texas, 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.