Alert archive / New Mexico / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997
Severe Thunderstorm Warning 308, NWS Midland/Odessa, TX
NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jul 3, 1997, 7:09 PM MDT for Eddy County, New Mexico. It was in force for 46 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 3, 1997, 7:09 PM MDT (01:09 UTC)
- Expired
- Jul 3, 1997, 7:55 PM MDT
- In force
- 46 min
- Issued by
- NWS Midland/Odessa, TX
- Area
- Whole counties
County Eddy County, NM
The radar
The Holloman AFB radar (KHDX), 183 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:08 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 3, 7:20 PM MDT | Thunderstorm Wind | Black River, NM | A downburst knocked down 4 utility poles in Black River Village. The poles were left lying to the SSE. A person with a hand-held anemometer measured a peak gust of 71 mph near the location of the poles. |
| Jul 3, 7:30 PM MDT | Thunderstorm Wind 62 | Loving, NM | An open-ended 30x40 foot barn made of poles and corrugated metal was destroyed by microburst winds. The owner of the barn said that the roof was first lifted and then the walls collapsed. The east side of the barn had no wall and with the winds coming in from |
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 nearest sounding before it
Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), launched 00:00Z, 1.2 hours before the alert went out and 206 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
- 765 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -32 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2358 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 4 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 100 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.8
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
057 WUUS1 KMAF 040111 RRA SVRMAF NMC015-040155- BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND TX 809 PM CDT (709 PM MDT) THU JUL 3 1997 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MIDLAND TX HAS ISSUED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 755 PM MDT (855 PM CDT) FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION... IN SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO ...EASTERN AND CENTRAL EDDY COUNTY AT 707 PM MDT...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WAS INDICATED BY MIDLAND DOPPLER RADAR 7 MILES NORTHEAST OF CARLSBAD OR 6 MILES EAST OF LA HUERTA MOVING SOUTHWEST AT 10 MPH. SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM ARE...CARLSBAD. WHEN THUNDERSTORMS ARE OCCURRING...PEOPLE SHOULD MOVE INSIDE A STRONG BUILDING. DO NOT STAND BY WINDOWS. DO NOT USE TELEPHONES OR ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES UNLESS IN AN EMERGENCY UNTIL THE STORM HAS PASSED. MOTORISTS SHOULD NOT DRIVE INTO LOW WATER CROSSINGS. BF/JLF
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 Jul 3, 1:20 PM MDT, 5 hours 49 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jul 3, 1:20 PM MDT, 5 hours 49 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND TX 219 PM CDT (119 PM MDT) THU JUL 3 1997 RADAR AND SATELLITE DATA INDICATES SCATTERED TSRA DEVELOPING ALONG THE DAVIS MOUNTAINS AND DRIFTING NORTHEASTARD...WITH A FEW TCU BUILDING IN PECOS AND TERRELL COUNTIES...IN WEAKLY CAPPED AIRMASS OF LIS AOB -6. OTHER STORMS ARE DEVELOPING NEAR PRESIDIO ASSOCIATED WITH A WEAK MID/UPPER LEVEL IMPULSE MOVING EASTWARD BENEATH THE UPPER LEVEL RIDGE. TWO AREAS OF CONCERN OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ETA/NGM APPEARS IN BETTER AGREEMENT/INITIALIZATION THAN AVN IN MOVING THE MID/UPPER LEVEL SHORTWAVE TROUGH ACROSS THE CENTRAL PLAINS AND THUS PUSHING THE COLD FRONT CURRENTLY ACROSS THE TEXAS PANHANDLE INTO THE NORTHERN PERMIAN BASIN BY 12Z/4TH OF JULY. THIS COLD FRONT...EXPECTED TO WEAKEN OVER THE BIG BEND AREA BY SATURDAY...SHOULD BRING ABUNDANT POST FRONTAL CLOUDINESS...BELOW NORMAL TEMPS AND INCREASED POPS ON FRIDAY. SECONDLY...A WEAKER MID/UPPER LEVEL IMPULSE CURRENTLY NEAR THE BIG BEND PER WATER VAPOR IMAGERY WILL DRIFT EASTWARD BENEATH THE UPPER LEVEL RIDGE AND MERGE WITH A WESTWARD MOVING TROPICAL WAVE OVERNIGHT. THIS IMPULSE SHOULD MAINTAIN THE CURRENT ABUNDANT LOW LEVEL MOISTURE AND THE LIKELYHOOD OF FRIDAY MORNING LOW CLOUDS ACROSS THE LOWER TRANS-PECOS REGION BEFORE DISSIPATING. MAF 69/87 10/20 CNM 68/90 10/20 MRF 59/84 10/10 P07 72/89 10/10 FAGEN/BRITE
The office that day
Everything else NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 3, 7:57 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MAF | Eddy | 48 min |
Nearby
Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in New Mexico, 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.