Alert archive / Indiana / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 16, NWS Northern Indiana

May 31, 1998DeKalb County, Indiana

NWS Northern Indiana issued this tornado warning at May 31, 1998, 12:14 PM EST for DeKalb County, Indiana. It was in force for 51 min. 3 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 31, 1998, 12:14 PM EST (17:14 UTC)
Expired: May 31, 1998, 1:05 PM EST
In force: 51 min
Issued by: NWS Northern Indiana
Area: Whole counties

County DeKalb County, IN

The radar

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 59 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:15 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 31, 12:44 PM EST	Tornado F0	Spencerville, IN	Law Enforcement report
May 31, 12:55 PM EST	Hail 0.75	Auburn, IN
May 31, 1:15 PM EST	Tornado F0	Auburn, IN

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

Detroit, MI (KDTX), launched 12:00Z, 5.2 hours before the alert went out and 196 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: 1019 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 48 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 18 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.

980 
WFUS53 KIWX 311713 RRA
TORFWA
INC033-311800-

BULLETIN- EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTHERN INDIANA
1214 PM EST SUN MAY 31 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NORTHERN INDIANA HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  DEKALB COUNTY IN NORTHEASTERN INDIANA

* UNTIL 105 PM EST

* AT 1211 PM EST... DOPPLER RADAR AT NORTH WEBSTER INDICATED A
  DEVELOPING TORNADO 5 MILES SOUTH OF ANGOLA OR 5 MILES WEST
  NORTHWEST OF HAMILTON MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 40 MPH.

* SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO ARE...
  HAMILTON
  STEUBENVILLE

THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM ACT QUICKLY. SEEK SHELTER IN AN
INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

JAH/TL

The office that day

Everything else NWS Northern Indiana issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 31, 11:54 AM EST	Tornado Warning	IWX	LaGrange, Steuben	36 min
May 31, 12:17 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IWX	Noble	48 min
May 31, 12:35 PM EST	Tornado Warning	IWX	Noble	50 min
May 31, 12:49 PM EST	Tornado Warning	IWX	Allen	46 min
May 31, 1:05 PM EST	Tornado Warning	IWX	DeKalb	30 min
May 31, 1:07 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IWX	Whitley	48 min
May 31, 1:35 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IWX	Allen	50 min
May 31, 1:39 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IWX	Allen	46 min
May 31, 1:48 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IWX	Grant	62 min
May 31, 1:59 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IWX	Blackford	46 min
May 31, 2:05 PM EST	Tornado Warning	IWX	Blackford, Grant	50 min
May 31, 2:09 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IWX	Jay	51 min
May 31, 2:31 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IWX	Adams, Wells	49 min
May 31, 3:38 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IWX	Grant	47 min
May 31, 4:15 PM EST	Tornado Warning	IWX	Blackford	35 min
May 31, 4:23 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IWX	Jay	32 min
May 31, 4:29 PM EST	Tornado Warning	IWX	Jay	31 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Indiana, 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.