Alert archive / Missouri / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 4, NWS Paducah, KY

March 1, 1997Mississippi County, New Madrid County, Missouri

NWS Paducah, KY issued this tornado warning at Mar 1, 1997, 5:56 PM CST for Mississippi County, New Madrid County, Missouri. 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: Mar 1, 1997, 5:56 PM CST (23:56 UTC)
Expired: Mar 1, 1997, 6:45 PM CST
In force: 49 min
Issued by: NWS Paducah, KY
Area: Whole counties

Counties Mississippi County, MO, New Madrid County, MO

The radar

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 74 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:55 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
Mar 1, 2:30 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	7 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), launched 12:00Z, 11.9 hours before the alert went out and 214 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: 1288 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 477 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 59 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 174 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 230 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.9
Supercell composite: 6.6

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KPAH 012356
TORPAH
MOC133-143-020045-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
556 PM CST SAT MAR 1 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PADUCAH HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  645 PM CST
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS...
 
IN SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
 
   ...MISSISSIPPI COUNTY...NEW MADRID COUNTY
 
A POSSIBLE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO MOVE THROUGH OR NEAR FARRENBURG BY 605
PM CST.
 
AT 554 PM CST...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A POSSIBLE TORNADO 50 MILES
SOUTHWEST OF PADUCAH...JUST EAST OF CATRON. MOVEMENT WAS TO THE EAST
NORTHEAST AT 45 MPH.
 
THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM SITUATION.  ACT QUICKLY.  IF YOU ARE
IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO MOVE TO A SHELTER BELOW GROUND IF
AVAILABLE.  OTHERWISE...GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST
FLOOR POSSIBLE.  AVOID WINDOWS.  ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE HOMES
FOR A REINFORCED BUILDING OR GET INTO A DITCH OR CULVERT.
 
SPODEN

The office that day

Everything else NWS Paducah, KY issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Mar 1, 10:53 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Scott, Stoddard	37 min
Mar 1, 3:54 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Mississippi, Scott	36 min
Mar 1, 3:57 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Carter	33 min
Mar 1, 4:10 PM CST	Tornado Warning	PAH	Carter	20 min
Mar 1, 4:44 PM CST	Flash Flood Warning	PAH	Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Perry, Scott, Stoddard	4 hr
Mar 1, 4:44 PM CST	Flash Flood Warning	PAH	Mississippi, New Madrid	4 hr
Mar 1, 4:44 PM CST	Flash Flood Warning	PAH	Butler, Carter, Wayne	4 hr
Mar 1, 4:44 PM CST	Flash Flood Warning	PAH	Ripley	4 hr
Mar 1, 5:24 PM CST	Tornado Warning	PAH	New Madrid	36 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Missouri, 1997 Every tornado warning in 1997 Tornadoes 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.