Alert archive / North Dakota / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1998

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 92, NWS Bismarck, ND

August 18, 1998Mountrail County, Ward County, North Dakota

NWS Bismarck, ND issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Aug 18, 1998, 5:23 PM CDT for Mountrail County, Ward County, North Dakota. It was in force for 47 min. 2 reports came from inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued: Aug 18, 1998, 5:23 PM CDT (22:23 UTC)
Expired: Aug 18, 1998, 6:10 PM CDT
In force: 47 min
Issued by: NWS Bismarck, ND
Area: Whole counties

Counties Mountrail County, ND, Ward County, ND

The radar

The Minot AFB radar (KMBX), 83 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:23 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.

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
Aug 18, 5:30 PM CDT	Tornado F0	Plaza, ND
Aug 18, 5:30 PM CDT	Hail 0.75	Plaza, ND

NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.

The watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Aug 18, 4:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 12:00Z, 10.4 hours before the alert went out and 186 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: 1285 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -141 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 577 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 238 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 321 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 10.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

582 
WUUS1 KBIS 182226 RRA
SVRBIS
NDC061-101-182310-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
523 PM CDT TUE AUG 18 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BISMARCK HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
  SOUTHEASTERN MOUNTRAIL COUNTY IN NORTHWESTERN NORTH DAKOTA
  SOUTHWESTERN WARD COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA

* UNTIL 610 PM CDT

* AT 525 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  SEVERE THUNDERSTORM 40 MILES WEST OF MINOT TO 45 MILES SOUTHWEST
  OF MINOT... MOVING NORTHEAST AT 25 MPH. THE MAIN THREAT FROM THE
  SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE DAMAGING WINDS.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR...
  PLAZA AT 535 PM CDT
  MAKOTI AT 545 PM CDT
  RYDER AT 550 PM CDT

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY DO PRODUCE TORNADOES
WITH LITTLE OR NO ADVANCE WARNING. GO INSIDE A STURDY BUILDING AND
STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS

RVE

The office that day

Everything else NWS Bismarck, ND issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 18, 4:04 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Williams	46 min
Aug 18, 6:13 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Bottineau	47 min
Aug 18, 4:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Morton	45 min
Aug 18, 5:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Morton	35 min
Aug 18, 5:38 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Mountrail	32 min
Aug 18, 5:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Renville, Ward	41 min
Aug 18, 6:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Bottineau, Renville	61 min
Aug 18, 6:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Ward	61 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in North Dakota, 1998 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1998

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.