Alert archive / Nebraska / Tornado Watches in 1997

Tornado Watch 478

June 19, 19974 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Jun 19, 1997, 2:15 PM MDT for 4 states. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jun 19, 1997, 2:15 PM MDT (20:15 UTC)
Expired: Jun 19, 1997, 9:00 PM MDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 32 counties

Logan County, CO, Phillips County, CO, Sedgwick County, CO, Arthur County, NE, Banner County, NE, Box Butte County, NE, Chase County, NE, Cheyenne County, NE, Dawes County, NE, Deuel County, NE, Dundy County, NE, Frontier County, NE, Garden County, NE, Grant County, NE, Hayes County, NE, Hitchcock County, NE, Hooker County, NE, Keith County, NE, Kimball County, NE, Lincoln County, NE, McPherson County, NE, Morrill County, NE, Perkins County, NE, Red Willow County, NE, Scotts Bluff County, NE, Sheridan County, NE, Sioux County, NE, Bennett County, SD, Fall River County, SD, Oglala Lakota County, SD, Goshen County, WY, Niobrara County, WY

The radar

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 152 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:19 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.

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 19, 2:33 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Garden	47 min
Jun 19, 3:15 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CYS	Banner	35 min
Jun 19, 3:24 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CYS	Cheyenne	46 min
Jun 19, 3:41 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Sheridan	64 min
Jun 19, 5:11 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Deuel	34 min
Jun 19, 5:19 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BOU	Sedgwick	41 min
Jun 19, 5:48 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Perkins	62 min
Jun 19, 6:20 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Perkins	60 min

The nearest sounding before it

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), launched 12:00Z, 8.3 hours before the alert went out and 190 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 2093 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 68 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 49 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

812 
WWUS9 KMKC 191949
SEL8  
MKC WW 191949
NEZ000-WYZ000-SDZ000-COZ000-200300-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 478
STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
149 PM MDT THU JUN 19 1997

THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF

   WESTERN NEBRASKA                           
   EASTERN WYOMING                            
   SOUTHWEST SOUTH DAKOTA                       
   NORTHEAST COLORADO                           

EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 215 PM UNTIL 900
PM MDT.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS
TO 85 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS ALONG AND 95 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST
OF A LINE FROM 60 MILES NORTH NORTHWEST OF CHADRON NEBRASKA TO 35
MILES SOUTH OF IMPERIAL NEBRASKA.

REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR
TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA. 
PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THREATENING
WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE
WARNINGS.

DISCUSSION...POTENTIAL FOR SUPERCELLS AND ISOLATED TORNADOES THIS
EVENING OVER THE WATCH AREA...WHERE SUFFICIENT MOISTURE WILL REMAIN
PRESENT BENEATH INCREASING WLY FLOW ALOFT.  AVERAGE CAPE RANGES
FROM AROUND 1500 J/KG IN WRN PORTION OF WATCH TO MORE THAN 3000
J/KG IN ERN PORTION.  MID LEVEL WLY WINDS RANGE FROM 25-30 KTS IN
THE S TO MORE THAN 40 KTS ACROSS THE N.  

AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 2 INCHES.  EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND
GUSTS TO 75 KNOTS.  A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500. 
MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 28035.


...CORFIDI

433,1013 400,0994 400,1032 433,1052

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 19, 5:30 PM MDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Antelope, Blaine, Boone, Boyd, Brown, Butler and 27 more	6 hr
Jun 18, 6:45 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Butte, Custer, Fall River, Harding, Lawrence, Meade and 3 more	5 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Nebraska, 1997 Tornado Watches in Colorado, 1997 Tornado Watches in South Dakota, 1997 Every 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; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.