Alert archive / Minnesota / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1998
Severe Thunderstorm Warning 210, NWS Grand Forks, ND
NWS Grand Forks, ND issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Aug 16, 1998, 6:46 PM CDT for Becker County, Minnesota. It was in force for 34 min. 2 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
- Aug 16, 1998, 6:46 PM CDT (23:46 UTC)
- Expired
- Aug 16, 1998, 7:20 PM CDT
- In force
- 34 min
- Issued by
- NWS Grand Forks, ND
- Area
- Whole counties
County Becker County, MN
The radar
The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 141 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:50 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 16, 7:15 PM CDT | Hail 0.88 | Evergreen, MN | |
| Aug 16, 7:30 PM CDT | Hail 1 | Detroit Lakes, MN |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 16, 4:15 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
International Fa, MN (KINL), launched 12:00Z, 11.8 hours before the alert went out and 254 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
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- No buoyant parcel
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1278 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 215 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 250 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
201 WUUS1 KFAR 162349 RRA SVRFAR MNC005-170020- BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND 646 PM CDT SUN AUG 16 1998 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAND FORKS HAS ISSUED A * SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR... BECKER COUNTY IN NORTHWESTERN MINNESOTA * UNTIL 720 PM CDT * AT 648 PM CDT...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM LOCATED NEAR LITTLE TOAD LAKE OR 12 MILES EAST OF DETROIT LAKES... MOVING EAST AT 20 MPH. * THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR... EVERGREEN REMEMBER SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY PRODUCE TORNADOES WITH LITTLE OR NO ADVANCED WARNING. NG
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Grand Forks, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Aug 16, 2:10 PM CDT, 4 hours 36 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Aug 16, 2:10 PM CDT, 4 hours 36 minutes before
FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND 210 PM CDT SUN AUG 16 1998 WK TSTMS INVOF SFC CDFNT MAY BCM SVR BY 00Z MON AS THEY ENTER CAPPED ATM OVR SERN ND AND ADJACENT SECTIONS OF MN. CAPE VALUES RATHER HI NR 3500 J/KG OVR SERN ND/WCNTRL MN BASED ON TEMPS NR 90 AND DWPNTS NR 70. BASED ON OBSERVATIONAL EXTRAPOLATION AND MDL GUIDANCE WOULD PLACE SFC CDFNT AT 22Z FROM JAMESTOWN TO MAYVILLE TO TVF TO BDE. BY OOZ MDLS FOCUS SFC MSTR CONVERGENCE ACRS SRN CWFA. WOULD CONT TO MENTION PSBL SVR TSTMS FROM 22Z AREA ON S. XPC TSTMS TO EXIT FA BY 08Z AS CDFNT SINKS INTO SD AND CNTRL MN. OVR NERN ND AND XTRM NWRN MN (HCO/ROX) SHOULD BE DRY FCST TNGT WITH AN INTRUSION OF SC. SHALLOW NATURE OF AIRMASS IS CAUSING A LOW LVL INVERSION AND WITH PLENTY OF MSTR AVBL LOW CLDS SHOULD SPRD S ACRS RGN BEHIND CDFNT. UPSTRM DWPNTS AND BLDG HI PRES AFT 06Z SUGG MID TO UPR 50S ACRSB CANADIAN BORDER WARMING TO LWR 60S ACRS SRN CWFA. WILL SENT FIRST PD ZN IF REQUESTED. BELLES
The office that day
Everything else NWS Grand Forks, ND issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 16, 6:12 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FGF | Becker | 33 min |
Nearby
Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Minnesota, 1998Every severe thunderstorm 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.