Alert archive / North Dakota / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 5, NWS Bismarck, ND

May 13, 1998Oliver County, North Dakota

NWS Bismarck, ND issued this tornado warning at May 13, 1998, 8:31 PM CDT for Oliver County, North Dakota. It was in force for 29 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: May 13, 1998, 8:31 PM CDT (01:31 UTC)
Expired: May 13, 1998, 9:00 PM CDT
In force: 29 min
Issued by: NWS Bismarck, ND
Area: Whole counties

County Oliver County, ND

The radar

The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 58 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:34 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
May 13, 8:45 PM CDT	Tornado F0	Center, ND	Brief touch down
May 13, 9:05 PM CDT	Hail 1	Price, 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
May 13, 6:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 00:00Z, 1.5 hours before the alert went out and 62 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: 655 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -29 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1459 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 58 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 120 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 250 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.4
Supercell composite: 7.3

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

856 
WFUS1 KBIS 140133 RRA
TORBIS
NDC065-140200-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
831 PM CDT WED MAY 13 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BISMARCK HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  EASTERN OLIVER COUNTY IN CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA

* UNTIL 900 PM CDT

* AT 825 PM CDT...AREA LAW ENFORCEMENT INDICATED A FUNNEL
  CLOUD 1 MILE SOUTH OF CENTER...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 30 MPH.
  DOPPLER RADAR INDICATES THIS WILL DEVELOP INTO A TORNADO.

* THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR...
  CENTER UNTIL 845 PM CDT
  SANGER AT 850 PM CDT

GO TO THE BASEMENT OR A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR

WA


&

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 13, 7:20 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Morton	45 min
May 13, 7:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Oliver	64 min
May 13, 8:05 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Morton	30 min
May 13, 8:48 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Burleigh	47 min
May 13, 10:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	McLean, Mercer	48 min
May 14, 5:27 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Sheridan	43 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in North Dakota, 1998 Every tornado warning in 1998 Tornadoes 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.