Alert archive / North Dakota / Tornado Warnings in 1998
Tornado Warning 8, NWS Bismarck, ND
NWS Bismarck, ND issued this tornado warning at May 17, 1998, 5:08 PM CDT for Ward County, North Dakota. It was in force for 32 min. 1 report 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 17, 1998, 5:08 PM CDT (22:08 UTC)
- Expired
- May 17, 1998, 5:40 PM CDT
- In force
- 32 min
- Issued by
- NWS Bismarck, ND
- Area
- Whole counties
County Ward County, ND
The radar
The Minot AFB radar (KMBX), 54 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:09 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 17, 5:18 PM CDT | Tornado F0 | Carpio, ND | Brief touch down reported by deputy. |
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 17, 4:30 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 12:00Z, 10.1 hours before the alert went out and 173 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 95 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -466 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1493 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 53 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 194 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 221 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
108 WFUS1 KBIS 172211 RRA TORBIS NDC101-172240- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND 508 PM CDT SUN MAY 17 1998 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BISMARCK HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... EXTREME NORTHWESTERN WARD COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA * UNTIL 540 PM CDT * AT 505 PM CDT... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO 40 MILES NORTHWEST OF MINOT NEAR THE TOWN OF COULEE... MOVING NORTH AT 10 MPH. * THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR... COULEE AT 510 PM CDT GO TO THE BASEMENT OR A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR LM
The office that day
Everything else NWS Bismarck, ND issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 17, 4:35 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Ward | 50 min |
| May 17, 5:24 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Renville | 46 min |
| May 17, 6:02 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS | Ward | 63 min |
| May 17, 6:14 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Bottineau, Renville | 61 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in North Dakota, 1998Every tornado warning in 1998Tornadoes 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.