Alert archive / Arkansas / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 38, NWS Little Rock, AR

July 4, 1997Bradley County, Arkansas

NWS Little Rock, AR issued this tornado warning at Jul 4, 1997, 6:47 PM CDT for Bradley County, Arkansas. It was in force for 58 min. 2 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: Jul 4, 1997, 6:47 PM CDT (23:47 UTC)
Expired: Jul 4, 1997, 7:45 PM CDT
In force: 58 min
Issued by: NWS Little Rock, AR
Area: Whole counties

County Bradley County, AR

The radar

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 153 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:50 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	Remark
Jul 4, 7:08 PM CDT	Hail 1.75	Hermitage, AR
Jul 4, 7:10 PM CDT	Hail 2.5	Hermitage, AR

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
Jul 4, 6:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	4 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), launched 12:00Z, 11.8 hours before the alert went out and 184 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: 1636 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -148 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1109 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 30 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 KLIT 042347 RRA
TORLIT
ARC011-050045-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR
647 PM CDT FRI JUL 4 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LITTLE ROCK AR HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 745 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN SOUTHEASTERN ARKANSAS

   ...BRADLEY COUNTY
 
AT 646 PM CDT...A POSSIBLE TORNADO WAS DETECTED BY DOPPLER RADAR 5
MILES NORTHEAST OF HAMPTON MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 15 MPH.

LOCATIONS IN OR NEAR THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO INCLUDE...
BANKS                        AROUND 700 PM CDT  ...
JERSEY                       AROUND 710 PM CDT  ...
FARMVILLE                    AROUND 720 PM CDT  ...

A DOPPLER RADAR DETECTED TORNADO MEANS THAT THERE IS STRONG ROTATION
WITHIN A STORM. THE STORM MAY NOT BE PRODUCING A TORNADO AT THE
MOMENT...BUT IS EXPECTED TO DURING THE WARNING PERIOD. THE STORM MAY
ALSO BE ACCOMPANIED BY HAIL AND DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WIND. THOSE IN
THEp PATH OF THE STORM ARE ADVISED TO SEEK SHELTER RIGHT AWAY.

45/104

The office that day

Everything else NWS Little Rock, AR issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 4, 7:39 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Cleburne	31 min
Jul 4, 7:50 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Independence	50 min
Jul 4, 8:28 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Faulkner	47 min
Jul 4, 3:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Grant	50 min
Jul 4, 5:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Clark	48 min
Jul 4, 5:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Ouachita	47 min
Jul 4, 6:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Calhoun	50 min
Jul 4, 6:26 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LZK	Calhoun	34 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Arkansas, 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; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.