Alert archive / Indiana / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 23, NWS Northern Indiana

May 31, 1998Blackford County, Grant County, Indiana

NWS Northern Indiana issued this tornado warning at May 31, 1998, 2:05 PM EST for Blackford County, Grant County, Indiana. It was in force for 50 min. 4 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, 2:05 PM EST (19:05 UTC)
Expired: May 31, 1998, 2:55 PM EST
In force: 50 min
Issued by: NWS Northern Indiana
Area: Whole counties

Counties Blackford County, IN, Grant County, IN

The radar

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 98 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:05 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
May 31, 2:15 PM EST	Hail 1.75	Hartford City, IN
May 31, 2:25 PM EST	Hail 1.75	Gas City, IN
May 31, 2:25 PM EST	Thunderstorm Wind 65	Gas City, IN
May 31, 2:36 PM EST	Hail 1.75	Montpelier, 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 watch it was issued in

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

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
May 31, 12:15 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), launched 12:00Z, 7.1 hours before the alert went out and 186 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: 1259 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -256 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 874 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 106 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 206 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

456 
WFUS53 KIWX 311904 RRA
TORFWA
INC009-053-311955-

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

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NORTHERN INDIANA HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  BLACKFORD COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL INDIANA
  SOUTHERN GRANT COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL INDIANA

* UNTIL 255 PM EST

* AT 203 PM EST... DOPPLER RADAR AT NORTH WEBSTER INDICATED A
  POSSIBLE TORNADO 11 MILES WEST OF HARTFORD CITY MOVING
  NORTHEAST AT 40 MPH.

* SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO ARE...
  UPLAND
  GAS CITYA
  HARTFORD CITY
  MONTPELIER

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, 12:14 PM EST	Tornado Warning	IWX	DeKalb	51 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, 2:09 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.