Alert archive / New Mexico / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 309, NWS Midland/Odessa, TX

July 3, 1997Eddy County, New Mexico

NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jul 3, 1997, 7:57 PM MDT for Eddy County, New Mexico. It was in force for 48 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: Jul 3, 1997, 7:57 PM MDT (01:57 UTC)
Expired: Jul 3, 1997, 8:45 PM MDT
In force: 48 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 02:01 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 nearest sounding before it

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), launched 00:00Z, 2.0 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.

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: 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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KMAF 040159 RRA
SVRMAF
NMC015-040245-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND TX
857 PM CDT (757 PM MDT) THU JUL 3 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MIDLAND TX HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 845 PM MDT (945 PM CDT)
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO

   ...CENTRAL AND EASTERN EDDY COUNTY

AT 756 PM MDT...A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS EXTENDED FROM 20
MILES EAST OF ARTESIA TO THE VICINITY OF CARLSBAD TO 20 MILES SOUTH
OF CARLSBAD MOVING SOUTH AT 10 MPH.

SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THESE STORMS 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, 6 hours 37 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 3, 1:20 PM MDT, 6 hours 37 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, 7:09 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy	46 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in New Mexico, 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.