Alert archive / Louisiana / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 11, NWS Lake Charles, LA

October 23, 1997Allen Parish, Louisiana

NWS Lake Charles, LA issued this tornado warning at Oct 23, 1997, 9:05 PM CDT for Allen Parish, Louisiana. It was in force for 55 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: Oct 23, 1997, 9:05 PM CDT (02:05 UTC)
Expired: Oct 23, 1997, 10:00 PM CDT
In force: 55 min
Issued by: NWS Lake Charles, LA
Area: Whole counties

County Allen Parish, LA

The radar

The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 58 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:05 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
Oct 23, 8:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), launched 00:00Z, 2.1 hours before the alert went out and 69 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: 880 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 853 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 45 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 124 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 173 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.7
Supercell composite: 3.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

735 
WFUS1 KLCH 240219 
TORLCH
LAC003-240300-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING...CORRECTED EXPIRATION TIME
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
905 PM CDT WED OCT 22 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAKE CHARLES HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 1000 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA

   ...ALLEN PARISH

AT 902 PM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
DEVELOPING TORNADO...JUST WEST OF SUGARTOWN...MOVING EAST AT 35 MPH
INTO NORTHERN ALLEN PARISH

PERSONS IN THE COMMUNITIES OF GRANT AND ELIZABETH ARE IN THE PATH OF
THIS STORM.

IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...SEEK SHELTER IN AN INTERIOR
ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET ON THE LOWEST FLOOR.  USE BLANKETS...PILLOWS
...OR CUSHIONS TO COVER YOUR BODY FROM FLYING DEBRIS.

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 23, 8:24 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LCH	Beauregard	66 min
Oct 23, 9:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Vernon	36 min
Oct 23, 9:58 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Rapides	47 min
Oct 24, 12:47 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	LCH	Evangeline, Jefferson Davis	58 min
Oct 24, 1:56 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	LCH	Vermilion	64 min
Oct 24, 3:49 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Allen, Evangeline	41 min
Oct 24, 3:49 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Avoyelles	41 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Louisiana, 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.