Alert archive / Texas / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 415, NWS Norman, OK

August 17, 1997Wichita County, Texas

NWS Norman, OK issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Aug 17, 1997, 5:11 PM CDT for Wichita County, Texas. It was in force for 64 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: Aug 17, 1997, 5:11 PM CDT (22:11 UTC)
Expired: Aug 17, 1997, 6:15 PM CDT
In force: 64 min
Issued by: NWS Norman, OK
Area: Whole counties; the outline is the Mesonet’s reconstruction

County Wichita County, TX

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
Aug 17, 5:38 PM CDT	Hail 0.88	Burkburnett, TX
Aug 17, 5:55 PM CDT	Hail 1	Iowa Park, TX

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

Norman, OK (KOUN), launched 12:00Z, 10.2 hours before the alert went out and 182 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: 1963 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -239 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1079 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 407 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 429 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 1.9

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 Norman, OK wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Aug 17, 3:30 PM CDT, 1 hour 41 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 17, 3:30 PM CDT, 1 hour 41 minutes before

FPUS3 KOKC 172030
AFDOKC

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
330 PM CDT SUN AUG 17 1997

THE SHORT TERM CONCERNS ARE DOMINATED BY THE PRESENCE OF NUMEROUS
OUTFLOW BOUNDARIES AND A COLD FRONT WHICH HAS BECOME VERY DIFFICULT
TO PICK OUT.  IT APPEARS AT THIS TIME THAT THE MOST LIKELY AREA FOR
NEW DEVELOPMENT IS SOUTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA AND WESTERN NORTH
TEXAS...DUE TO THE LONG-TERM HEATING AND THE APPROACHING BOUNDARIES.
THIS AREA ALSO HAS THE BEST CHANCE OF HEAVY RAINFALL...SO WILL
MENTION THAT POSSIBILITY IN THE FORECAST.  RAINFALL AMOUNTS SHOULD
NOT BE ENOUGH TO WARRANT A FLOOD WATCH...BUT THEY MAY COME CLOSE.

TOMORROW AND TOMORROW NIGHT PRESENT SOME DIFFICULTIES AS THE MODELS
DIFFER ON MID-LEVEL INFLUENCES.  HAVE BASED THE FORECAST ON THE
ASSUMPTION THAT THE SHORT WAVE OVER THE SOUTHWESTERN STATES WILL
BEGIN TO AFFECT OUR FORECAST AREA TOMORROW.  GIVEN ABUNDANT
MOISTURE...THE ONCOMING SHORT WAVE...AND PROBABLY MANY EXISTING
BOUNDARIES...WOULD EXPECT A GOOD CHANCE OF RAIN TO CONTINUE THROUGH
TOMORROW NIGHT.  SO HAVE GONE ABOVE FWC GUIDANCE...WITH HIGHEST
CHANCES IN NORTH WHERE FRONTAL POSITION IS MOST LIKELY TO BE.

FWC TEMPERATURE GUIDANCE SEEMS GENERALLY REASONABLE...BUT HAVE
LOWERED SOME OF THE VALUES DUE TO EXPECTED PRECIPITATION AND DAYTIME
CLOUDS.  HAVE ADDITIONALLY LOWERED MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES IN THE
NORTHWEST FOR TOMORROW AND TUESDAY BECAUSE IT APPEARS THAT THE
FRONT...OR ITS REMAINS...WILL STILL BE SOUTH OF THAT AREA.

TOOK THE EXTENDED FORECAST VERBATIM FROM THE FORECASTER FROM WHOM I
INHERITED THE LAST HALF OF THIS SHIFT.  ESSENTIALLY...WE EXPECT
WEDNESDAY TO BE HOT AND DRY...THEN ANOTHER FRONT DROPS IN FROM THE
NORTH ON THURSDAY AND BRINGS IN COOLER TEMPERATURES AND ANOTHER
CHANCE OF RAIN THROUGH FRIDAY.

FCSTID = 23 = CMS

OKC   72  85  72  92 /  40  40  30  30
HBR   70  86  72  95 /  40  40  30  20
SPS   75  93  75  98 /  40  30  20  20
GAG   65  84  68  90 /  40  40  40  30
PNC   73  85  73  88 /  20  30  50  30
DUA   70  88  73  92 /  50  30  30  20

.OKC...
OK...NONE.
TX...NONE.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Aug 17, 4:39 PM CDT, 32 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Local storm report, Aug 17, 4:40 PM CDT, 31 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Local storm report, Aug 17, 4:55 PM CDT, 16 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Local storm report, Aug 17, 4:58 PM CDT, 13 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

The office that day

Everything else NWS Norman, OK issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 17, 12:05 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Dewey, Major	40 min
Aug 17, 12:44 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Major	61 min
Aug 17, 7:06 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Hughes	39 min
Aug 17, 8:31 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Atoka	29 min
Aug 17, 4:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Jefferson	44 min
Aug 17, 4:24 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Cotton	51 min
Aug 17, 4:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Jefferson	47 min
Aug 17, 5:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Cotton	47 min
Aug 17, 5:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Jefferson	47 min
Aug 17, 5:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Clay	51 min
Aug 17, 6:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Archer, Wichita	45 min
Aug 17, 6:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Clay	65 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive.