Alert archive / Minnesota / Tornado Watches in 1997

Tornado Watch 550

July 1, 199728 counties in Minnesota; 18 counties in Wisconsin

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Jul 1, 1997, 7:45 PM CDT for 28 counties in Minnesota; 18 counties in Wisconsin. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jul 1, 1997, 7:45 PM CDT (00:45 UTC)
Expired: Jul 2, 1997, 1:00 AM CDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 46 counties

Anoka County, MN, Blue Earth County, MN, Carver County, MN, Chisago County, MN, Dakota County, MN, Dodge County, MN, Faribault County, MN, Fillmore County, MN, Freeborn County, MN, Goodhue County, MN, Hennepin County, MN, Houston County, MN, Isanti County, MN, Kanabec County, MN, Le Sueur County, MN, Mille Lacs County, MN, Mower County, MN, Olmsted County, MN, Ramsey County, MN, Rice County, MN, Scott County, MN, Sherburne County, MN, Steele County, MN, Wabasha County, MN, Waseca County, MN, Washington County, MN, Winona County, MN, Wright County, MN, Barron County, WI, Buffalo County, WI, Burnett County, WI, Chippewa County, WI, Clark County, WI, Dunn County, WI, Eau Claire County, WI, Jackson County, WI, La Crosse County, WI, Pepin County, WI, Pierce County, WI, Polk County, WI, Rusk County, WI, Saint Croix County, WI, Sawyer County, WI, Trempealeau County, WI, Vernon County, WI, Washburn County, WI

The radar

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 77 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:49 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

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 1, 7:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Carver, Sibley	37 min
Jul 1, 7:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Hennepin	37 min
Jul 1, 7:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Dakota, Scott	64 min
Jul 1, 8:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MPX	Anoka	29 min
Jul 1, 8:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Chisago, Washington	50 min
Jul 1, 8:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MPX	Isanti	46 min
Jul 1, 8:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Polk, Saint Croix	65 min
Jul 1, 8:29 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DLH	Burnett	61 min
Jul 1, 8:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Goodhue	57 min
Jul 1, 8:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Dakota	34 min
Jul 1, 9:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Barron, Dunn	50 min
Jul 1, 9:30 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DLH	Burnett	45 min
Jul 1, 9:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DLH	Washburn	62 min
Jul 1, 9:47 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Goodhue	28 min
Jul 1, 10:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Pepin, Pierce	46 min
Jul 1, 10:17 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ARX	Crawford, Vernon	43 min
Jul 1, 10:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Buffalo	64 min
Jul 1, 10:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Washington	35 min
Jul 1, 10:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Chippewa, Eau Claire	52 min
Jul 1, 10:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Pepin, Pierce	35 min
Jul 1, 11:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Clark	65 min
Jul 1, 11:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Buffalo	59 min
Jul 1, 11:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Eau Claire	27 min
Jul 1, 11:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Rice	32 min
Jul 1, 11:58 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ARX	Clark	47 min
Jul 2, 12:34 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Trempealeau	66 min

The nearest sounding before it

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), launched 00:00Z, 0.8 hours before the alert went out and 79 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: 1759 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1186 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 63 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 303 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 455 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 4.3
Supercell composite: 21.5

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.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 1, 8:45 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Crawford	5 hr
Jul 1, 10:30 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adams, Clark, Columbia, Crawford, Dane, Dodge and 25 more	6 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Minnesota, 1997 Tornado Watches in Wisconsin, 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.