Alert archive / Iowa / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 21, NWS Quad Cities, IA

May 15, 1998Cedar County, Iowa

NWS Quad Cities, IA issued this tornado warning at May 15, 1998, 5:39 PM CDT for Cedar County, Iowa. It was in force for 51 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 15, 1998, 5:39 PM CDT (22:39 UTC)
Expired: May 15, 1998, 6:30 PM CDT
In force: 51 min
Issued by: NWS Quad Cities, IA
Area: Whole counties

County Cedar County, IA

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 49 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:41 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 15, 6:06 PM CDT	Tornado F3	Downey, 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, 5:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Lincoln, IL (KILX), launched 12:00Z, 10.7 hours before the alert went out and 279 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: 1190 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -238 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 813 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 68 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.

326 
WFUS1 KMLI 152241
TORMLI
IAC031-152330-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
539 PM CDT FRI MAY 15 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN QUAD CITIES IA HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  CEDAR COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL IOWA

* UNTIL 630 PM CDT

* AT 538 PM CDT... DOPPLER RADAR AND SPOTTER REPORTS INDICATED A
  TORNADO 8 MILES SOUTHEAST OF IOWA CITY OR 6 MILES SOUTHWEST OF
  DOWNEY MOVING NORTHEAST AT 45 MPH.

* THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR...
  DOWNEY                                     AROUND 545 PM CDT
  WEST BRANCH                                AROUND 550 PM CDT
  SPRINGDALE                                 AROUND 550 PM CDT
  ROCHESTER                                  AROUND 555 PM CDT
  TIPTON                                     AROUND 605 PM CDT

A TORNADO IS ON THE GROUND NEAR HILLS IN SOUTHERN JOHNSON COUNTY GO
TO THE BASEMENT IF A BASEMENT IS NOT AVAILABLE...GO TO A SMALL
INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR

WEISSER


&

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 15, 4:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Keokuk	46 min
May 15, 4:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Jefferson	50 min
May 15, 4:34 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Keokuk	36 min
May 15, 4:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Washington	48 min
May 15, 4:48 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Jefferson	37 min
May 15, 4:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Iowa	32 min
May 15, 5:03 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Washington	47 min
May 15, 5:28 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Johnson	47 min
May 15, 5:43 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Muscatine	32 min
May 15, 6:22 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Jones	48 min
May 15, 6:44 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Jackson	51 min
May 15, 6:49 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Cedar	21 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; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.