Alert archive / Iowa / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 8, NWS Des Moines, IA

May 15, 1998Kossuth County, Iowa

NWS Des Moines, IA issued this tornado warning at May 15, 1998, 1:38 PM CDT for Kossuth County, Iowa. It was in force for 32 min. 8 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 15, 1998, 1:38 PM CDT (18:38 UTC)
Expired: May 15, 1998, 2:10 PM CDT
In force: 32 min
Issued by: NWS Des Moines, IA
Area: Whole counties

County Kossuth County, IA

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where
May 15, 1:44 PM CDT	Hail 1	Algona, IA
May 15, 1:50 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 56	Lakota, IA
May 15, 1:55 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 61	Bancroft, IA
May 15, 1:59 PM CDT	Hail 1.75	Bancroft, IA
May 15, 2:06 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 78	Bancroft, IA
May 15, 2:16 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 52	Algona Muni Arpt, IA
May 15, 2:19 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 52	Algona, IA
May 15, 2:20 PM CDT	Hail 1.75	Algona, IA

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 15, 9:45 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), launched 12:00Z, 6.6 hours before the alert went out and 189 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: 1571 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -84 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 642 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 179 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 180 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.9
Supercell composite: 6.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KDSM 151838 RRA
TORDSM
IAC109-151910-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA
138 PM CDT FRI MAY 15 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DES MOINES HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  KOSSUTH COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL IOWA

* UNTIL 210 PM CDT

* AT 136 PM CDT... DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO 34 MILES NORTH
  OF FORT DODGE OR 5 MILES SOUTH SOUTHEAST OF ALGONA MOVING NORTH
  NORTHEAST AT 55 MPH.

* THIS TORNADO CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR...
   ALGONA             BY 137 PM CDT
   BURT               BY 145 PM CDT
   TITONKA            BY 151 PM CDT
   BANCROFT           BY 151 PM CDT
   LAKOTA             BY 159 PM CDT

THIS REPLACES THE SEVERE THUNDERSTO RM WARNING THAT WAS ALREADY IN
EFFECT.

IF YOU ARE IN A MULTIPLE STORY BUILDING...GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR
ROOM AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

BSS/JJ

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 15, 9:18 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Taylor	32 min
May 15, 9:28 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Cass	37 min
May 15, 9:46 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Audubon	34 min
May 15, 9:54 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Crawford	36 min
May 15, 10:00 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Carroll	35 min
May 15, 10:11 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Crawford	34 min
May 15, 10:16 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Sac	34 min
May 15, 10:24 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Calhoun	36 min
May 15, 12:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Carroll	34 min
May 15, 1:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Calhoun, Sac	31 min
May 15, 1:09 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Calhoun	36 min
May 15, 1:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Humboldt	34 min
May 15, 1:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Kossuth	34 min
May 15, 1:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Pocahontas	33 min
May 15, 1:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Cass	17 min
May 15, 1:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Audubon	34 min
May 15, 2:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Kossuth	35 min
May 15, 2:38 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Kossuth	22 min
May 15, 3:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Boone, Greene	32 min
May 15, 3:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Webster	33 min
May 15, 3:29 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Hamilton	31 min
May 15, 3:37 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Wright	33 min
May 15, 3:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Story	33 min
May 15, 3:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Wapello	34 min
May 15, 3:54 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Sac	36 min
May 15, 3:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Franklin, Hardin	46 min
May 15, 3:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Cerro Gordo, Hancock	46 min
May 15, 4:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Davis	36 min
May 15, 4:13 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Wapello	32 min
May 15, 4:24 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Calhoun, Pocahontas	36 min
May 15, 4:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Humboldt	35 min
May 15, 4:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Tama	35 min
May 15, 4:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Kossuth, Palo Alto	47 min
May 15, 4:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Butler, Grundy	31 min
May 15, 5:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Black Hawk	35 min
May 15, 5:07 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Bremer	33 min
May 15, 5:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Bremer	35 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive.