Alert archive / Indiana / Tornado Watches in 1997

Tornado Watch 299

May 18, 1997Iroquois County, Illinois; 25 counties in Indiana; 12 counties in Michigan

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 18, 1997, 8:00 PM CDT for Iroquois County, Illinois; 25 counties in Indiana; 12 counties in Michigan. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued
May 18, 1997, 8:00 PM CDT (01:00 UTC)
Expired
May 19, 1997, 1:00 AM CDT
In force
5 hr
Issued by
the Storm Prediction Center
All 38 counties

Iroquois County, IL, Benton County, IN, Carroll County, IN, Cass County, IN, DeKalb County, IN, Elkhart County, IN, Fulton County, IN, Grant County, IN, Huntington County, IN, Jasper County, IN, Kosciusko County, IN, LaGrange County, IN, Lake County, IN, LaPorte County, IN, Marshall County, IN, Miami County, IN, Newton County, IN, Noble County, IN, Porter County, IN, Pulaski County, IN, Saint Joseph County, IN, Starke County, IN, Steuben County, IN, Wabash County, IN, White County, IN, Whitley County, IN, Allegan County, MI, Barry County, MI, Berrien County, MI, Branch County, MI, Calhoun County, MI, Cass County, MI, Eaton County, MI, Hillsdale County, MI, Ingham County, MI, Kalamazoo County, MI, Saint Joseph County, MI, Van Buren County, MI

Warnings issued inside it

16 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 18, 8:15 PM CDTTornado WarningLOTLake, Porter60 min
May 18, 8:20 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGRRBerrien, Van Buren65 min
May 18, 8:52 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOTFord, Iroquois, Kankakee2 hr
May 18, 8:52 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOTJasper, LaPorte, Pulaski, Starke, White2 hr
May 18, 8:52 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOTMarshall, Saint Joseph2 hr
May 18, 9:19 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOTFulton, Kosciusko56 min
May 18, 9:19 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOTElkhart56 min
May 18, 9:20 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGRRCass35 min
May 18, 9:24 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGRRSaint Joseph51 min
May 18, 9:28 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGRRBranch, Calhoun47 min
May 18, 9:40 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningIWXLaGrange35 min
May 18, 9:45 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGRRHillsdale50 min
May 18, 9:48 PM CDTTornado WarningIWXLaGrange, Steuben27 min
May 18, 9:57 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningIWXNoble33 min
May 18, 10:50 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOTIroquois, Kankakee55 min
May 18, 11:12 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLOTFord, Iroquois, Livingston63 min

The nearest sounding before it

Lincoln, IL (KILX), launched 00:00Z, 1.0 hours before the alert went out and 220 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-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 1997-05-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 1314 joules per kilogram.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Lincoln, IL at 00:00Z on 1997-05-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 104 square meters per square second.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
1314 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-31 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1926 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
104 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
292 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
8.8

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.

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 18, 11:00 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCAdams, Brown, Calhoun, Cass, Champaign, Christian and 28 more6 hr
May 18, 10:00 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCAdams, Allen, Blackford, DeKalb, Jay, Randolph and 2 more6 hr
May 19, 12:45 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCAdams, Allen, Bartholomew, Benton, Blackford, Boone and 50 more5 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Indiana, 1997Tornado Watches in Michigan, 1997Tornado Watches in Illinois, 1997Every tornado watch 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.