Alert archive / Idaho / Tornado Warnings in 1997
Tornado Warning 2, NWS Pocatello, ID
NWS Pocatello, ID issued this tornado warning at May 31, 1997, 4:52 PM MDT for Bannock County, Bingham County, Idaho. It was in force for 38 min. 3 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
- May 31, 1997, 4:52 PM MDT (22:52 UTC)
- Expired
- May 31, 1997, 5:30 PM MDT
- In force
- 38 min
- Issued by
- NWS Pocatello, ID
- Area
- Whole counties
Counties Bannock County, ID, Bingham County, ID
The radar
The Pocatello radar (KSFX), 35 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:52 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 31, 4:55 PM MDT | Tornado F0 | Pocatello, ID | Tornado briefly touched down on hillside east of Pocatello Drive-Inn Theatre |
| May 31, 5:20 PM MDT | Hail 1 | Inkom, ID | Quarter-size hail covered the ground. |
| May 31, 5:30 PM MDT | Hail 0.75 | Inkom, ID | Hail observed along Marsh Creek Road. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 31, 2:30 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Salt Lake City I, UT (KSLC), launched 12:00Z, 10.9 hours before the alert went out and 243 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
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- No buoyant parcel
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2586 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 35 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 0 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 91 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
978 WFUS1 KPIH 312256 RRA TORPIH IDC005-011-312330- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE POCATELLO ID 452 PM MDT SAT MAY 31 1997 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN POCATELLO HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 530 PM MDT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...S... IN SOUTHEAST IDAHO ...NORTHERN BANNOCK COUNTY...SOUTH CENTRAL BINGHAM COUNTY AT 450 PM DOPPLER WEATHER RADAR SHOWED A POSSIBLE TORNADO ABOUT 4 MILES EAST OF FORT HALL OR 10 MILES SOUTH OF BLACKFOOT. THIS TORNADO IS MOVING NORTHEAST AT 30 MPH. AT 445 PM A WEATHER SPOTTER IN CHUBBUCK OBSERVED A FUNNEL IMMEDIATELY NORTH OF CHUBBUCK. THIS WAS ALSO CONFIRMED BY STATE POLICE. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM AND WILL ALSO PRODUCE LARGE DAMAGING HAIL AND FREQUENT LIGHTNING. &
The office that day
Everything else NWS Pocatello, ID issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 31, 2:26 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Custer | 49 min |
| May 31, 2:39 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Blaine | 51 min |
| May 31, 2:44 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Minidoka | 46 min |
| May 31, 3:20 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Custer | 40 min |
| May 31, 3:28 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Blaine | 32 min |
| May 31, 3:42 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Bingham, Power | 48 min |
| May 31, 3:49 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Butte | 26 min |
| May 31, 3:53 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Cassia | 37 min |
| May 31, 4:05 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Bannock, Bingham | 40 min |
| May 31, 4:14 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Power | 31 min |
| May 31, 4:19 PM MDT | Tornado Warning | PIH | Butte | 26 min |
| May 31, 4:38 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Bingham | 37 min |
| May 31, 4:42 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Cassia | 33 min |
| May 31, 5:02 PM MDT | Tornado Warning | PIH | Jefferson | 28 min |
| May 31, 5:09 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Bingham | 36 min |
| May 31, 5:21 PM MDT | Tornado Warning | PIH | Bannock | 39 min |
| May 31, 5:26 PM MDT | Tornado Warning | PIH | Jefferson | 19 min |
| May 31, 5:35 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Oneida | 25 min |
| May 31, 5:38 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Cassia | 37 min |
| May 31, 5:48 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PIH | Caribou | 27 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Idaho, 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.