Alert archive / Iowa / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 19, NWS Des Moines, IA

May 28, 1998Wright County, Iowa

NWS Des Moines, IA issued this tornado warning at May 28, 1998, 4:44 PM CDT for Wright County, Iowa. It was in force for 21 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: May 28, 1998, 4:44 PM CDT (21:44 UTC)
Expired: May 28, 1998, 5:05 PM CDT
In force: 21 min
Issued by: NWS Des Moines, IA
Area: Whole counties

County Wright County, IA

The radar

The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 111 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:52 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.

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 28, 3:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	5 hr
May 28, 4:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), launched 12:00Z, 9.7 hours before the alert went out and 236 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: 339 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -204 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1573 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 52 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 81 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 94 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.

000 
TTAA00 KDSM 282144 RRA
TORDSM
IAC197-282205-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA
444 PM CDT THU MAY 28 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DES MOINES HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  SOUTHWESTERN WRIGHT COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL IOWA

* UNTIL 505 PM CDT

* AT 443 PM CDT... LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED A TORNADO 16 MILES
  EAST NORTHEAST OF FORT DODGE OR 3 MILES NORTHWEST OF WOOLSTOCK
  MOVING EAST SOUTHEAST AT 15 MPH.

* THIS TORNADO CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR...
   WOOLSTOCK          BY 455 PM CDT

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

SEARCY/JJ

The office that day

Everything else NWS Des Moines, IA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 28, 3:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Pocahontas	36 min
May 28, 3:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Palo Alto	34 min
May 28, 3:49 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Pocahontas	31 min
May 28, 4:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Webster	37 min
May 28, 4:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Humboldt	30 min
May 28, 4:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Wright	20 min
May 28, 4:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Hamilton	32 min
May 28, 4:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Hardin	31 min
May 28, 5:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Hardin	34 min
May 28, 5:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Humboldt, Webster	34 min
May 28, 6:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Grundy	34 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Iowa, 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.