Alert archive / Washington / Tornado Warnings in 1997
Tornado Warning 2, NWS Spokane, WA
NWS Spokane, WA issued this tornado warning at Jul 21, 1997, 4:56 PM PDT for Stevens County, Washington. 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
- Jul 21, 1997, 4:56 PM PDT (23:56 UTC)
- Expired
- Jul 21, 1997, 5:45 PM PDT
- In force
- 49 min
- Issued by
- NWS Spokane, WA
- Area
- Whole counties
County Stevens County, WA
The radar
The Spokane radar (KOTX), 82 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:59 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 21, 5:00 PM PDT | Thunderstorm Wind 70 | Marcus, WA | Roof lifted off house. Numerous telephone poles down |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 21, 3:30 PM PDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Spokane, WA (KOTX), launched 12:00Z, 11.9 hours before the alert went out and 133 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
- 429 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -207 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1624 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 4 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 78 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.0
The text
The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.
The office that day
Everything else NWS Spokane, WA issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 21, 3:26 PM PDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OTX | Whitman | 49 min |
| Jul 21, 3:26 PM PDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OTX | Whitman | 64 min |
| Jul 21, 3:54 PM PDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OTX | Spokane | 51 min |
| Jul 21, 4:15 PM PDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OTX | Ferry | 45 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Washington, 1997Every tornado warning in 1997Tornadoes 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.