Alert archive / Mississippi / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 306, NWS New Orleans, LA

November 21, 1997Jackson County, Mississippi

NWS New Orleans, LA issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Nov 21, 1997, 4:38 PM CST for Jackson County, Mississippi. It was in force for 52 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: Nov 21, 1997, 4:38 PM CST (22:38 UTC)
Expired: Nov 21, 1997, 5:30 PM CST
In force: 52 min
Issued by: NWS New Orleans, LA
Area: Whole counties

County Jackson County, MS

The radar

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 44 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:37 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
Nov 21, 2:30 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), launched 12:00Z, 10.6 hours before the alert went out and 106 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: 20 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -114 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 981 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 52 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 192 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 207 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KNEW 212239 RRA
SVRNEW
MSC059-212330-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
438 PM CST FRI NOV 21 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NEW ORLEANS HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  530 PM CST
FOR RESIDENTS IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN SOUTH MISSISSIPPI
 
   ...JACKSON COUNTY
 
AND THE ADJACENT COASTAL WATERS
 
 
AT 435 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADARS INDICATED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM OVER WESTERN JACKSON COUNTY...10 MILES NORTH OF
OCEAN SPRINGS...MOVING EAST AT 35 MILES AN HOUR. LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING
WINDS ARE EXPECTED WITH THIS STORM. VANCLEAVE IS IN THE PATH OF THIS
STORM.
 
A TORNADO WATCH IS ALSO IN EFFECT FOR THE WARNED AREA.  REMEMBER
SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY DO PRODUCE TORNADOES
WITH LITTLE OR NO ADVANCE WARNING.  REMAIN CALM BUT BE ALERT TO
RAPIDLY CHANGING WEATHER CONDITIONS.

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.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Nov 21, 10:50 AM CST, 5 hours 48 minutes before

LAZ049-050-057-058-040-038-039-MSZ077-071-221600-

THUNDERSTORM OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1030 AM CST FRI NOV 21 1997

THERE IS A RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN ACROSS
SOUTH MISSISSIPPI AND SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA TODAY.  THE ATMOSPHERE HAS
BECOME VERY UNSTABLE AHEAD OF A SLOW MOVING COLD FRONT WHICH WILL BE
ENTERING THE WESTERN PART OF THE STATE TODAY.  THERE IS A STRONG UPPER
LEVEL SYSTEM THAT IS DRIVING THE COLD FRONT SLOWLY EAST.  AHEAD OF THE
UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM THE WINDS ARE STRENGTHENING AT ALL LEVELS.  THIS
WILL HELP TO DESTABILIZE THE ATMOSPHERE BY BRINGING WARM...MOIST AIR
INTO THE STATE.

THIS COMBINATION OF EVENTS IS ALREADY PRODUCING NUMEROUS THUNDERSTORMS
OVER PARTS OF SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA AND SOUTHWEST MISSISSIPPI WEST OF NEW
ORLEANS...AND NEAR THE BATON ROUGE LAFAYETTE AREA LATE THIS MORNING.
THE AREA OF THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE SLOWLY EAST FOR MOST OF THE DAY
BEFORE LEAVING THE AREA BY THIS EVENING. REMEMBER SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS
PRODUCE DAMAGING WINDS...LARGE HAIL AND SOMETIMES TORNADOES.  IN
ADDITION...THERE IS THE ADDED RISK OF LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN WHICH COULD
PRODUCING STREET FLOODING TODAY.

THIS AND OTHER WEATHER INFORMATION CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH
NOAA WEATHER RADIO..LOCAL TELEVISION AND RADIO STATIONS..
CABLE OUTLETS..OR FROM OUR INTERNET HOMEPAGE ON THE WORLD
WIDE WEB AT --> HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV (LOWER CASE) UNDER
FORECAST OFFICES.

The office that day

Everything else NWS New Orleans, LA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Nov 21, 7:45 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LIX	Wilkinson	30 min
Nov 21, 12:12 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LIX	Walthall	48 min
Nov 21, 1:56 PM CST	Tornado Warning	LIX	Hancock, Pearl River	49 min
Nov 21, 2:43 PM CST	Tornado Warning	LIX	Hancock, Harrison	62 min
Nov 21, 3:00 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LIX	Pearl River	30 min
Nov 21, 3:46 PM CST	Tornado Warning	LIX	Harrison, Jackson	44 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Mississippi, 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.