Alert archive / Texas / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997
Severe Thunderstorm Warning 126, NWS Midland/Odessa, TX
NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 23, 1997, 6:16 PM CDT for Scurry County, Texas. It was in force for 49 min. 1 report 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
- May 23, 1997, 6:16 PM CDT (23:16 UTC)
- Expired
- May 23, 1997, 7:05 PM CDT
- In force
- 49 min
- Issued by
- NWS Midland/Odessa, TX
- Area
- Whole counties
County Scurry County, TX
The radar
The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 131 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:17 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 23, 6:25 PM CDT | Hail 0.75 | Snyder, TX | The synoptic setting included a surface pre-frontal trough west of the dry line near the Texas/New Mexico border. Storms formed along the trough in the middle of the afternoon and intensified after moving east of the dryline in the late afternoon. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 23, 4:15 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), launched 12:00Z, 11.3 hours before the alert went out and 150 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 423 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -101 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1073 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 17 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 8 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
983 WUUS1 KMAF 232317 RRA SVRMAF TXC415-240005- BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND TX 616 PM CDT FRI MAY 23 1997 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MIDLAND TX HAS ISSUED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 705 PM CDT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION... IN NORTHWESTERN TEXAS ...NORTHERN SCURRY COUNTY AT 615 PM CDT...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WAS INDICATED BY MIDLAND DOPPLER RADAR IN THE VICINITY OF SNYDER MOVING NORTHWEST AT 15 MPH. SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM ARE... BRAND AND DERMOTT. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCE DAMAGING WIND IN EXCESS OF 55 MPH... DESTRUCTIVE HAIL...DEADLY LIGHTNING...AND VERY HEAVY RAIN. FOR YOUR PROTECTION...MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS. HEAVY RAINS FLOOD ROADS QUICKLY SO DO NOT DRIVE INTO AREAS WHERE WATER COVERS THE ROAD. EARLE
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.
NWS Midland/Odessa, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at May 23, 2:18 PM CDT, 3 hours 58 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, May 23, 2:18 PM CDT, 3 hours 58 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND TX 218 PM CDT (118 PM MDT) FRI MAY 23 1997 SYNOPSIS: A TROUGH WAS PASSING OVR THE W/TX REGION THIS AFTERNOON AND SHUD AMOUNT TO NOTHING MORE THAN A WIND SHIFT AT LWR LVLS. THIS WIND SHIFT WL HELP TO GRADUALLY MOVE DRIER AMS E-WRD OVR THE RGN BY TMRW. ATTM OROGRAPHIC T-STORMS WERE BEGINNING TO DEVELOP IN THE AREA OF DEEP MOISTURE AND MARGINAL INSTABILITY AND ALONG OLDER OUTFLOW BOUNDARIES THAT EXIST OVR THE REGION. THE LIMITING FACTORS TO SEVERE DEVELOPMENT WL BE LACK OF STG WNDS/SHEAR OR QG FORCING AT LOW/MID LVLS. WSM/JTN PROFILERS REFLECT THIS TREND WUD EXPECT SLOW MOVING OUTFLOW BOUNDARY DRIVEN STORMS TO PREVAIL WITH HVY RAINFALL AND SMALL HAIL MAIN THREAT TIL AROUND 03Z. A MORE PRONOUNCED TREND OF STEEPENING LAPSE RATES AND DESTABILIZATION WERE NOTED FURTHER NORTH OVER THE TX/PANHANDLE. 50H TROUGH PROGGED OVER TX TO KICK E-WRD AND BE REPLACED WITH GENERAL W/SW FLOW FOR THE WEEKEND CONSEQUENTLY TEMPS WARM TO SUMMERTIME LVLS UNDER MOSTLY SUNNY SKIES. SHORT TERM: AREA OF SUBSIDENCE NOTED OVR NM BEHIND TROUGH AND WUD EXPECT CLEARING TONIGHT OVR W/TX HWVR HIGH CLOUDS SHUD RETURN SAT AS MORE PAC MOISTURE MOVG ONSHORE WL CONTRIBUTE SOME HI LVL MOISTURE WL AND MAY BE ENOUGH TO KEEP TEMPS A CAT OR SO BELOW EXPECTED HIGHS. SFC WINDS SHUD REMAIN LIGHT. LONG TERM: 50H LOW PRESSURE TROUGH SET TO BECOME ESTABLISHED OVR THE GREAT BASIN KEEPING REGION IN GENL SW FLOW AND WARM TEMPS TIL EARLY NEXT WEEK. GUIDANCE TEMPS DISPARITY CONTINUES AVN SEEMS TOO COOL CONSIDERING TRENDS. WL LEAN CLOSER TO NGM CONSIDERING EXPECTED DRYING. CNM 60/93 11 MAF 59/93 21 MRF 52/84 31 P07 61/91 32 PENDERGRAST/HUBER
The office that day
Everything else NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 22, 7:11 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MAF | Presidio | 49 min |
| May 23, 1:24 AM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | MAF | Terrell | 3 hr |
| May 23, 5:51 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MAF | Terrell | 49 min |
Nearby
Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Texas, 1997Every 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.