Alert archive / Minnesota / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 13, NWS Grand Forks, ND

July 18, 1998Pennington County, Minnesota

NWS Grand Forks, ND issued this tornado warning at Jul 18, 1998, 5:41 PM CDT for Pennington County, Minnesota. It was in force for 34 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: Jul 18, 1998, 5:41 PM CDT (22:41 UTC)
Expired: Jul 18, 1998, 6:15 PM CDT
In force: 34 min
Issued by: NWS Grand Forks, ND
Area: Whole counties

County Pennington County, MN

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 113 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.

The watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Jul 18, 5:15 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

International Fa, MN (KINL), launched 12:00Z, 10.7 hours before the alert went out and 210 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: 10 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -31 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1148 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 38 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 152 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.

224 
WFUS1 KFAR 182242 RRA
TORFAR
MNC113-182315-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
541 PM CDT SAT JUL 18 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAND FORKS HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  PENNINGTON COUNTY IN NORTHWESTERN MINNESOTA

* UNTIL 615 PM CDT

* AT 542 PM CDT...DOPPLER WEATHER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO NEAR THE
  TOWN OF THIEF RIVER FALLS MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 20 MPH.

DO NOT OUTRUN A TORNADO IN YOUR CAR.  LEAVE YOUR CAR AND GO TO A
STRONG BUILDING OR SEEK SHELTER IN A DITCH OR LOW SPOT.

RA

The office that day

Everything else NWS Grand Forks, ND issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 18, 11:07 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Wilkin	33 min
Jul 18, 11:31 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Grant	34 min
Jul 18, 11:44 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Kittson	31 min
Jul 18, 12:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Kittson, Roseau	50 min
Jul 18, 3:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Beltrami	44 min
Jul 18, 5:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FGF	Pennington	31 min
Jul 18, 6:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Red Lake	49 min
Jul 18, 6:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Polk	32 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Minnesota, 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.