Alert archive / Texas / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 4, NWS Shreveport, LA

February 20, 1997Shelby County, Texas

NWS Shreveport, LA issued this tornado warning at Feb 20, 1997, 7:59 PM CST for Shelby County, Texas. It was in force for 31 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: Feb 20, 1997, 7:59 PM CST (01:59 UTC)
Expired: Feb 20, 1997, 8:30 PM CST
In force: 31 min
Issued by: NWS Shreveport, LA
Area: Whole counties

County Shelby County, TX

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 79 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:03 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
Feb 20, 3:30 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), launched 00:00Z, 2.0 hours before the alert went out and 85 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: 820 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 620 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 60 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 302 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 415 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.9
Supercell composite: 7.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KSHV 210159 RRA
TORSHV
TXC419-210230-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
759 PM CST THU FEB 20 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SHREVEPORT HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  830 PM CST
FOR THE FOLLOWING AREA...
 
IN NORTHEAST TEXAS
 
   ...EASTERN SHELBY COUNTY
 
AT 758 PM CST DOPPLER RADAR IN SHREVEPORT INDICATED A POSSIBLE
TORNADO OVER EASTERN SHELBY COUNTY ABOUT 5 MILES SOUTHEAST OF
SHELBYVILLE TEXAS MOVING TO THE NORTH NORTHEAST AT 40 MPH.
THIS TORNADO WILL AFFECT THE HUXLEY BAY AREA ALONG TOLEDO
BEND AROUND 810 PM CST.
 
 
IF YOU ARE CAUGHT IN YOUR CAR IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...LEAVE THE
CAR AND GO TO A STRONG BUILDING. IF NO STRUCTURE IS NEARBY...SEEK
SHELTER IN A DITCH OR LOW SPOT.
 
IF YOU ARE CAUGHT OUTSIDE...HURRY TO A NEARBY REINFORCED BUILDING.
AS A LAST RESORT...SEEK SHELTER IN A CULVERT...DITCH OR LOW SPOT.
 
6/3

The office that day

Everything else NWS Shreveport, LA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Feb 20, 6:04 PM CST	Flash Flood Warning	SHV	Cass, Harrison, Marion	4 hr
Feb 20, 6:04 PM CST	Flash Flood Warning	SHV	Gregg, Rusk	4 hr
Feb 20, 6:04 PM CST	Flash Flood Warning	SHV	Bowie	4 hr
Feb 20, 6:15 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Cass, Harrison, Marion	60 min
Feb 20, 6:43 PM CST	Flash Flood Warning	SHV	Morris	3 hr
Feb 20, 6:51 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Bowie	54 min
Feb 20, 7:30 PM CST	Flash Flood Warning	SHV	Angelina, Nacogdoches	3 hr

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Texas, 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.