Alert archive / Texas / Flash Flood Warnings in 1997

Flash Flood Warning 17, NWS San Angelo, TX

May 15, 1997Tom Green County, Texas

NWS San Angelo, TX issued this flash flood warning at May 15, 1997, 4:13 AM CDT for Tom Green County, Texas. It was in force for 2 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: May 15, 1997, 4:13 AM CDT (09:13 UTC)
Expired: May 15, 1997, 6:15 AM CDT
In force: 2 hr
Issued by: NWS San Angelo, TX
Area: Whole counties

County Tom Green County, TX

The radar

The San Angelo radar (KSJT), 5 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 09:16 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 nearest sounding before it

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), launched 00:00Z, 9.2 hours before the alert went out and 175 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: 566 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -130 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 2720 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 138 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 235 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 1.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KSJT 150913
FFWSJT
TXC451-151115-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN ANGELO TX
413 AM CDT THU MAY 15 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SAN ANGELO TX HAS ISSUED A
FLASH FLOOD WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 615 AM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN WEST CENTRAL TEXAS

   ...TOM GREEN COUNTY
 
VERY HEAVY RAINFALL OF AROUND ONE INCH HAS ALREADY FALLEN OVER
MUCH OF SAN ANGELO WITH AN ADDITIONAL 1 TO 2 INCHES EXPECTED THROUGH
6 AM. THIS WILL CAUSE FLOODING OF STREETS AND LOW WATER CROSSINGS
ACROSS THE CITY OF SAN ANGELO AND ACROSS MOST OF TOM GREEN COUNTY.

BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER TO RECOGNIZE THE
DANGERS OF FLASH FLOODING. IF FLOODING IS OBSERVED...ACT QUICKLY.
MOVE UP TO ESCAPE FLOOD WATERS. DO NOT STAY IN AREAS SUBJECT TO
FLOODING WHEN WATER BEGINS RISING.
 
10

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this flash flood warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS San Angelo, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at May 15, 1:52 AM CDT, 2 hours 21 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 15, 1:52 AM CDT, 2 hours 21 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN ANGELO TX
152 AM CDT THU MAY 15 1997

A VERY ACTIVE MORNING IS TAKING PLACE OVER WEST CENTRAL TEXAS AS
ABILENE HAS BEEN PELTED WITH GOLF BALL HAIL AND A LINE OF STRONG TO
SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IS ENTERING THE WESTERN CONCHO VALLEY. ALL OF
OUR COUNTIES ARE IN A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH UNTIL 7 AM.

AFTER THESE STORMS END THERE SHOULD BE SOME LEFTOVER BOUNDARIES THAT
COULD BE FOCUS AREAS FOR MORE THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT LATE THIS
AFTERNOON AND EVENING. ALTHOUGH THE SEVERE RISK FROM SPC ONLY CLIPS
OUR WESTERNMOST COUNTIES WE COULD GET ISOLATED SEVERE WEATHER AGAIN
OVER THE WESTERN TWO THIRDS OF OUR REGION IF WE GET ENOUGH HEATING.
TEMPERATURES WILL BE HELD DOWN A FEW DEGREES TODAY DUE TO HIGH DEW
POINTS AND LIGHT EASTERLY FLOW...AND SCATTERED TO BROKEN MID TO HIGH
LEVEL MOISTURE. I WILL SPLIT GUIDANCE NUMBERS FOR HIGHS AND GO FOR
HIGHER END OF GUIDANCE FOR PRECIPITATION CHANCES MAINLY DUE TO
LEFTOVER MORNING CONVECTION.

UNLIKE THIS MORNING...EARLY FRIDAY MORNING SHOULD BE MUCH QUIETER AS
THE LOW LEVEL FLOW IS EXPECTED TO BE MUCH WEAKER AND THE UPPER AND
MID LEVELS DRY OUT SIGNIFICANTLY. LOW CLOUDS ARE LIKELY...HOWEVER...
AS THE ETA KEEPS PLENTY OF LOW LEVEL MOISTURE THROUGH 12Z FRIDAY.
THESE LOW CLOUDS WILL KEEP TEMPERATURES ABOVE GUIDANCE TONIGHT.

ABI 080/060 52
JCT 083/060 32
SJT 081/062 52

10

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 15, 3:27 AM CDT, 46 minutes before

TXZ049-053-054-064-065-150845-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN ANGELO TX
327 AM CDT THU MAY 15 1997

...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR
FISHER...MITCHELL...NOLAN...STERLING...AND COKE COUNTIES...

...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE REMAINDER
OF WEST CENTRAL TEXAS UNTIL 7 AM...

AT 325 AM THE THREAT OF SEVERE WEATHER HAS ENDED OVER THE WESTERN
BIG COUNTRY AND THE NORTHWEST PORTIONS OF THE CONCHO VALLEY.
THEREFORE THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR
FISHER...MITCHELL...NOLAN...STERLING...AND COKE COUNTIES.

A LONG LINE OF STRONG TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE TO
MOVE SLOWLY ACROSS THE REMAINDER OF WEST CENTRAL TEXAS THROUGH
THE EARLY MORNING HOURS.

10

The office that day

Everything else NWS San Angelo, TX issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 14, 11:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Mitchell, Sterling	58 min
May 15, 12:04 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Coke, Nolan	61 min
May 15, 12:34 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Callahan, Taylor	61 min
May 15, 1:01 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Sterling, Tom Green	64 min
May 15, 1:05 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Coke, Nolan	60 min
May 15, 1:25 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Jones	50 min
May 15, 1:47 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	SJT	Coke	78 min
May 15, 1:55 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	SJT	Taylor	2 hr
May 15, 1:58 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Shackelford	67 min
May 15, 2:06 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	SJT	Jones	64 min
May 15, 2:32 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	SJT	Runnels	63 min
May 15, 2:37 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	SJT	Jones, Shackelford	3 hr
May 15, 2:42 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Crockett	63 min
May 15, 2:51 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	SJT	Shackelford	79 min
May 15, 3:08 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Taylor	47 min
May 15, 4:15 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Shackelford	65 min
May 15, 3:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	SJT	Schleicher	59 min
May 15, 3:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SJT	Brown	65 min
May 15, 4:02 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	SJT	Schleicher	93 min

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Texas, 1997 Every flash flood 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.