Alert archive / Illinois / Flash Flood Warnings in 1998

Flash Flood Warning 9, NWS Quad Cities, IA

October 17, 1998Bureau County, Henry County, Whiteside County, Illinois

NWS Quad Cities, IA issued this flash flood warning at Oct 17, 1998, 4:48 PM CDT for Bureau County, Henry County, Whiteside County, Illinois. It was in force for 6 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Oct 17, 1998, 4:48 PM CDT (21:48 UTC)
Expired: Oct 17, 1998, 10:50 PM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: NWS Quad Cities, IA
Area: Whole counties

Counties Bureau County, IL, Henry County, IL, Whiteside County, IL

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 61 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:08 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 nearest sounding before it

Davenport, (KDVN), launched 12:00Z, 9.8 hours before the alert went out and 55 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 885 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 196 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 213 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 KMLI 172156 COR
FFWMLI
IAC011-057-087-095-103-107-111-115-139-163-183-ILC011-071-073-
131-161-195-180350-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
FLOOD WARNING...CORRECTED FOR IOWA COUNTY IN TEXT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
448 PM CDT SAT OCT 17 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN QUAD CITIES IA HAS ISSUED A

* FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  BENTON COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL IOWA
  DES MOINES COUNTY IN SOUTHEASTERN IOWA
  HENRY COUNTY IOWA IN SOUTHEASTERN IOWA
  IOWA COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL IOWA
  JOHNSON COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL IOWA
  KEOKUK COUNTY IN SOUTHEASTERN IOWA
  LEE COUNTY IN SOUTHEASTERN IOWA
  LOUISA COUNTY IN SOUTHEASTERN IOWA
  MUSCATINE COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL IOWA
  SCOTT COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL IOWA
  WASHINGTON COUNTY IN SOUTHEASTERN IOWA
  BUREAU COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS
  HENDERSON COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL ILLINOIS
  HENRY COUNTY ILLINOIS IN NORTHWESTERN ILLINOIS
  MERCER COUNTY IN NORTHWESTERN ILLINOIS
  ROCK ISLAND COUNTY IN NORTHWESTERN ILLINOIS
  WHITESIDE COUNTY IN NORTHWESTERN ILLINOIS

* UNTIL 1050 PM CDT

* 2-3 INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN SINCE MIDNIGHT SATURDAY MORNING
  ANOTHER 0.5-1 INCH IS POSSIBLE THIS EVENING

* THE HEAVY RAIN THAT HAS FALLEN OVER THE PAST 18 HOURS WILL CONTINUE
  TO MAKE AREA CREEKS...STREAMS...AND SMALL UNGAGED RIVERS GO OVER
  THEIR BANKS AND CAUSE MINOR TO MODERATE FLOODING ALONG THE
  WATERWAYS. MORE RAIN THIS EVENING WILL MAKE THE SITUATION WORSE.

...SOME WATERWAYS TO BE AFFECTED ARE...

NORTH FORK OF THE ENGLISH RIVER
CLEAR CREEK
OLD MANS CREEK
RAPID CREEK
CEDAR CREEK NEAR OAKLAND MILLS
LONG CREEK
FLINT RIVER
DUCK CREEK
POPE CREEK
EDWARDS RIVER
HENDERSON CREEK
GENESEO CREEK
...AND ANY LOW-LYING FLOOD-PRONE AREAS.

BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER TO RECOGNIZE THE
DANGERS OF FLOODING.

HELGESON/ARKELL

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this flash flood warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Quad Cities, IA wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Oct 17, 2:13 PM CDT, 2 hours 35 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 17, 2:13 PM CDT, 2 hours 35 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
213 PM CDT SAT OCT 17 1998

18Z ANALYSIS SHOWS LARGE AREA OF PRECIPITATION EXTENDING FROM
WISCONSIN TO CENTRAL OKLAHOMA AHEAD OF SURFACE COLD FRONT WHICH
EXTENDS FROM NORTHERN MINNESOTA TO NORTHWEST OKLAHOMA.  SATELLITE
AND RADAR RETURNS SHOW NUMEROUS THUNDERSTORMS COMPOSE THE SOUTHERN
HALF OF THE AREA WITH A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS WELL DEFINED FROM NEAR
KANSAS CITY TO SOUTH OF ABILENE TEXAS. THE NORTHERN END OF THE
PRECIPITATION IS PREDOMINATELY SHOWERS WITH A FEW THUNDERSTORMS AND
WIND PROFILES SUPPORTS THIS TO CONTINUE AS FRONT AND SURFACE LOW
LIFTS NORTH. FINALLY...88D RETURNS SHOW MAINLY STRATIFORM
COLD POOL RETURNS NOW MOVING INTO REGION AS CONVECTION MOVES
INTO SOUTHEAST FORECAST AREA. OF NOTE...SURFACE ANALYSIS ALSO SHOWS A
WEAK SECONDARY LOW NEAR EAX THO ISALLOBARIC AND WIND FIELDS SUGGESTS
LIMITED IF ANY ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT.  THIS IS FORTUNATE AS ALREADY
WET FROM COPIOUS 1 TO 3 INCH RAINS PAST 24 HOURS AND ANY ADDITIONAL
SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL AMOUNTS WOULD CREATE A SIGNIFICANT FLOODING
SITUATION WHICH IS STILL POSSIBLE SOUTHERN PORTIONS. THUS...
MAIN CONCERN IS TIMING END OF PRECIPITATION.

ALL MODELS ARE SIMILAR WITH SURFACE LOW MOVING INTO LAKE SUPERIOR
REGION TONIGHT AND TRAILING A COLD FRONT ACROSS FORECAST AREA
BETWEEN 04Z AND 08Z.  THE CONVECTION UPSTREAM AND PASSING
THROUGH SHOULD LIMIT ANY ADDITIONAL CONVECTION WITH MAINLY RAIN THIS
EVENING UNLESS AFOREMENTIONED LOW DEVELOPS FURTHER NEAR EAX.
GOOD NORTHWEST WINDS AND HEIGHT RISES BEHIND FRONT SUGGEST MODERATE
NORTHWEST WIND TO ARRIVE AND PUSH MOISTURE OUT EXCEPT FAR
SOUTHEAST WHERE QPF AMOUNTS STILL POSSIBLE TIL MORNING. CLEARING OF
CLOUDS TO OCCUR AS WITH POLAR JET TO NORTH AND WEST THIS
SHOULD LIMIT ANY WRAPAROUND MOISTURE.  HENCE...EVENING POPS WEST
ENDING LATE EAST WITH CLEARING WEST.

TEMPS FOR TONIGHT SHOULD STAY UP WITH WINDS AND CLOUDS EXCEPT FAR
WEST IN LINE WITH FAN AND FWC WITH ONE CATEGORY BELOW WEST AND
ABOVE EAST WITH CLOUDS AND PRECIP.

CID 50/60  DBQ 51/70  BRL 57/*   MLI 54/90

NICHOLS

The office that day

Everything else NWS Quad Cities, IA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 17, 4:48 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	DVN	Henderson, Mercer, Rock Island	6 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Illinois, 1998 Every flash flood 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.