Alert archive / Colorado / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1998

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 20, NWS Goodland, KS

May 5, 1998Kit Carson County, Yuma County, Colorado

NWS Goodland, KS issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 5, 1998, 4:41 PM MDT for Kit Carson County, Yuma County, Colorado. It was in force for 64 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: May 5, 1998, 4:41 PM MDT (22:41 UTC)
Expired: May 5, 1998, 5:45 PM MDT
In force: 64 min
Issued by: NWS Goodland, KS
Area: Whole counties

Counties Kit Carson County, CO, Yuma County, CO

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 77 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:45 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 5, 5:18 PM MDT	Hail 0.88	Joes, CO
May 5, 5:35 PM MDT	Tornado F0	Vona, CO	Brief tornado observed by law enforcement.

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 nearest sounding before it

Denver, CO (KDNR), launched 12:00Z, 10.7 hours before the alert went out and 66 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: 890 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -21 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -121 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

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 Goodland, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at May 5, 2:31 AM MDT, 14 hours 10 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 5, 2:31 AM MDT, 14 hours 10 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GOODLAND KS
231 AM MDT (331 AM CDT) TUE MAY 5 1998

...THUNDERSTORMS CHANCES ARE THE CHALLENGE...

06Z SFC ANALYSIS INDICATED COLD FRONT THRU THE CWA AND RESTING
SOMEWHERE VCNTY OF GCK TO LHX LINE...FAR IN ITS WAKE WAS A 1012 MB
LOCATED OVER SW ND. 700 MB UA ANALYSIS SHOWED A 700 MB LOW OVER
CENTRAL CO AND THIS CIRCULATION WAS SHOWN IN WATER VAPOR IMAGERY AND
CAUGHT BY THE MODELS. RESULT WAS CONTINUING CONVECTION OVER ERN
CO/WRN KS EARLY THIS MORNING. 500 MB CHART SHOWED DIFLUENT FLOW OVER
NE CO PRECEEDING AN EWD PROGRESSING UPPER LOW PROGGED TO FILL 60 M
OR SO AS IT SETTLES OVER CA/NV AREA BY 48 HRS. MEANWHILE...FOCUS
WILL BE MAINLY IN THE LOWER ATMOSPHERE AS RETURN FLOW SETS UP LATE
TDY...AND WE PREPARE FOR ANOTHER FRONTAL SURGE LATE WEDS AFTN/EARLY
EVE.

CURRENTLY FAVOR AN NGM/AVN COMPROMISE...LEANING MORE TOWARD THE NGM.
ETA LOOKS TO MOVE ENERGY TO FAR EAST TOO FAST AND DEVELOPS A
QUESTIONABLE UPPER LOW OVER IOWA BY H48. NGM/AVN SHOW CONTINUING
ENERGY MOVING NE OVER THE CWA AT 700 MB THROUGH WEDS MORNING. THIS
OVER THE TOP OF A MOIST LOWER ATMOSPHERE IN FAIR INSTABILITY FROM
500-700 LAPSE RATES OF 7-8 DEG C/KM. THUS WILL KEEP POPS GOING IN
THE FCST. WILL GO AT OR ABOVE FWC...LEANING A BIT TOWARD AVN NUMBERS.

FWC TEMPS LOOK A BIT WARM IN UPSLOPE FLOW AND CLOUDY SKIES OVER RAIN
SOAKED GROUND...SO WILL CUT SOME FOR TDYS HIGH. WEDNESDAY SHOULD
BRING ENOUGH SUN TO ALLOW TEMPS TO RISE TO FWC. WILL LIKELY LEAVE
EXTENDED ALONE FOR NOW.

.GLD...NONE.
STAVISH

The office that day

Everything else NWS Goodland, KS issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 4, 7:06 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Sheridan	64 min
May 4, 7:15 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Thomas	65 min
May 4, 8:17 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Thomas	33 min
May 4, 9:00 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Sheridan	65 min
May 4, 9:42 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Wallace	63 min
May 4, 8:08 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Yuma	62 min
May 5, 5:25 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	GLD	Kit Carson	45 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Colorado, 1998 Every 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.