Alert archive / Washington / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 2, NWS Spokane, WA

May 31, 1997Adams County, Washington

NWS Spokane, WA issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 31, 1997, 11:31 AM PDT for Adams County, Washington. It was in force for 29 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 31, 1997, 11:31 AM PDT (18:31 UTC)
Expired: May 31, 1997, 12:00 PM PDT
In force: 29 min
Issued by: NWS Spokane, WA
Area: Whole counties

County Adams County, WA

The radar

The Spokane radar (KOTX), 105 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:31 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 watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
May 31, 10:00 AM PDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Spokane, WA (KOTX), launched 12:00Z, 6.5 hours before the alert went out and 181 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: 11 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -225 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1213 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 50 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 14 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 146 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.

445 
WUUS1 KGEG 311834 RRA
SVRGEG
WAC001-311900-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WA
1131 AM PDT SAT MAY 31 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SPOKANE HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL NOON PDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN NORTHEAST WASHINGTON
 
   ...WESTERN ADAMS COUNTY
 
AT 1130 AM A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WAS LOCATED JUST EAST OF OTHELLO. THIS
STORM WAS MOVING TO THE NORTH NORTHEAST AT 35 MPH AND IT WILL MOVE
ACROSS WESTERN ADAMS COUNTY BY NOON.
 
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
DONT DRIVE INTO AREAS WHERE WATER COVERS THE ROAD.

The office that day

Everything else NWS Spokane, WA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 31, 11:13 AM PDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OTX	Grant	62 min
May 31, 11:58 AM PDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OTX	Adams	62 min
May 31, 12:14 PM PDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OTX	Lincoln	61 min
May 31, 12:45 PM PDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OTX	Garfield, Whitman	60 min
May 31, 1:15 PM PDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OTX	Spokane	60 min
May 31, 1:33 PM PDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OTX	Stevens	57 min
May 31, 1:39 PM PDT	Flash Flood Warning	OTX	Asotin, Whitman	66 min
May 31, 1:39 PM PDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OTX	Asotin, Whitman	66 min
May 31, 1:53 PM PDT	Flash Flood Warning	OTX	Pend Oreille	67 min
May 31, 1:53 PM PDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OTX	Pend Oreille	67 min
May 31, 3:08 PM PDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OTX	Pend Oreille	52 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Washington, 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.