Alert archive / Texas / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 58, NWS Midland/Odessa, TX

May 6, 1997Brewster County, Jeff Davis County, Texas

NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 6, 1997, 3:51 PM CDT for Brewster County, Jeff Davis County, Texas. It was in force for 49 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: May 6, 1997, 3:51 PM CDT (20:51 UTC)
Expired: May 6, 1997, 4:40 PM CDT
In force: 49 min
Issued by: NWS Midland/Odessa, TX
Area: Whole counties

Counties Brewster County, TX, Jeff Davis County, TX

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 235 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:54 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 12:00Z, 8.9 hours before the alert went out and 235 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: 360 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -469 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1574 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 136 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

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 6, 2:56 PM CDT, 55 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 6, 2:56 PM CDT, 55 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND TX
254 PM CDT TUE MAY 6 1997

A LOOK AT SATELLITE REVEALS LOW CLOUDS VERY SLOWLY DISSIPATING OVER
FA SE ZONES...WHILE ACCAS DVLP OVER SE NM AND NRN FA AHEAD OF
APPROACHING SHORTWAVE TROUGH...A GOOD SIGN OF HIGH LAPSE RATES ALOFT.
BOUNDARY LAYER NOT TAPPED YET...AS LATEST ADAP AND SOUNDING
MODIFICATION SHOW A 4-5C CAP STILL IN PLACE OVER MUCH OF FA...THANKS
TO MOIST UPSLOPE FLOW HOLDING DOWN TEMPS. UPSLOPE FLOW AND
DIFFERENTIAL HEATING HAS ALLOWED SOME STORMS TO DEVELOP OVER HIER
TERRAIN OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS ATTM. AS NOTED IN SWOMCD...THESE STORMS
COULD BECOME SVR IF THEY TAP INTO VERY UNSTABLE BLYR AIR TO EAST.
BROAD UPPER RIDGING SHOULD KEEP SHORTWAVE ENERGY N OF FA...SO EXPECT
WIDELY SCT CONVECTION CONFINED TO VCNTY AND JUST E OF MTNS (SEE
SWODY1). WILL SHOTGUN SLIGHT CHANCE POPS THESE AREAS FOR THIS EVE...
AND EXPECT PRECIP TO RAPIDLY DISSIPATE AROUND SUNSET WITH LOSS OF
INSOLATION.

AFTER DARK...EXPECT MILD TEMPERATURES...WITH LOW CLOUDS OVER MOST OF
EASTERN ZONES AS DEVELOPING LOW LEVEL JET ADVECTS MORE MOISTURE INTO
AREA. DEEPENING LEE TROUGH NEAR TX/NM BORDER SHOULD ENSURE CONTINUED
MOIST SOUTHEAST SFC FLOW EAST OF MOUNTAINS.

BROAD UPPER RIDGE OVER W-CENT USA TO FLATTEN SOMEWHAT WED AS STRONG
SHORTWAVE TROUGH TRACKS E ACROSS NRN PLAINS. LEE TROUGHING TO
CONTINUE ALONG TX/NM BORDER BENEATH THIS ZONAL FLOW...RESULTING IN
IMPRESSIVE THICKNESS IN WRN ZONES INVOF SFC TROUGH AND ABOVE NORMAL
TEMPS AS SFC WINDS BECOME W-SW BEHIND LEE TROUGH. AS IS THE CASE
TODAY...EXPECT SLIGHT POPS WED EVENING WITH ALMOST ZERO POPS DURING
DAY. COORDINATED WITH LBB.

MAF  64/88  1/-
CNM  60/92  2/-
MRF  51/87  2/-
P07b  67/90  -/-

TJT

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 6, 10:41 AM CDT, 5 hours 10 minutes before

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The office that day

Everything else NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 6, 5:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy	61 min
May 6, 5:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy	38 min
May 6, 6:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy, Lea	61 min
May 6, 6:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Lea	34 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Texas, 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.