Alert archive / Texas / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1998

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 18, NWS Lake Charles, LA

January 21, 1998Hardin County, Texas

NWS Lake Charles, LA issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jan 21, 1998, 3:35 PM CST for Hardin County, Texas. It was in force for 30 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: Jan 21, 1998, 3:35 PM CST (21:35 UTC)
Expired: Jan 21, 1998, 4:05 PM CST
In force: 30 min
Issued by: NWS Lake Charles, LA
Area: Whole counties

County Hardin County, TX

The radar

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 115 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:38 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
Jan 21, 2:15 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), launched 12:00Z, 9.6 hours before the alert went out and 117 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: 58 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -81 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 502 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 46 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 287 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 313 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 1.7

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

793 
WUUS1 KLCH 212136 RRA
SVRLCH
TXC199-212205-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
335 PM CST WED JAN 21 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAKE CHARLES LA HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 405 PM CST
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN SOUTHEASTERN TEXAS

   ...HARDIN COUNTY

AT 335 PM CST NEXRAD DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM
LOCATED 10 MILES SOUTHWEST OF SILSBEE MOVING NORTHEAST AT 30 MPH.
EXPECT LARGE HAIL WITH THIS STORM.

A TORNADO WATCH IS ALSO IN EFFECT FOR THE WARNED AREA.
REMEMBER...SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY DO PRODUCE
TORNADOES WITH LITTLE OR NO ADVANCED WARNING.

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 Lake Charles, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Jan 21, 2:45 PM CST, 50 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 21, 2:45 PM CST, 50 minutes before

SOUTHEAST TEXAS..SOUTHWEST AND CENTRAL LOUISIANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
245 PM CST WED JAN 21 1998

WILL NEED TO MAKE THIS QUICK WITH A TORNADO WATCH BEING ISSUED FOR
THE SE TX AND SW LA ZONES. LAST FEW VOLUME SCANS ARE SHOWING CNVTN
BECOMING MORE ORGANIZED BETWEEN BPT AND HOU WHERE THE BEST MOISTURE
CONVERGENCE AND SURFCACE LI/S OF -4 TO -8 EXIST. THE RAPID
DESTABILIZATION IS A DIRECT RESULT OF STRONG MOISTURE CONVECTION AND
DAYTIME HEATING...WITH SFC TEMPS IN THE LOWER 70S AND DWPTS IN THE
LOWER AND MID 60S. LCH VWP SHOWS SOME TURNING IN THE LOW-LEVELS
BETWEEN THE SFC AND 5 KFT. MODIFYING THE 12Z LCH SOUNDING WITH THE
20Z SFC OB PRODUCES A CAPE NEAR 2000 J/KG AND A BEST LI OF -4. IT
APPEARS THAT WARM FRONT ALONG SE TX THIS MORNING HAS MORE OR LESS
MERGED WITH THE STATIONARY FRONT...LOCATED IN A LINE FROM TXK TO TYR
TO CLL. MODELS INDICATE MID/UPPER LEVEL TROF GRADUALLY SHIFTING
EASTWARD A VIGOROUS SHORT WAVE ROUNDS THE BASE OF TROF THE NEXT
24H. THIS IN CONJUNCTION WITH A WEAK SUB TROP JET MAX...PWS OF
1.2 TO 1.5...850 MB LOW-LEVEL JET...AND A SLOW MOVING FRONTAL
BOUNDARY ALL POINT TO A HEAVY RAINFALL EVENT TONIGHT AND EARLY
THURSDAY. QPF AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES LOOK REASONABLE WITH
ISOLATED AMOUNTS UP TO 4 INCHES. EXPECT FRONTAL PASSAGE IN SE TX
AND SW LA NEAR NOONTIME THURSDAY AND ACROSS S CEN AND E CEN LA
LATE IN THE AFTERNOON.

5

BPT 65/66/42/50 +6(EARLY)10
LCH 65/66/42/50 +710
LFT 64/65/45/50 8820
AEX 59/62/40/49 9820

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jan 21, 3:19 PM CST, 16 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
319 PM CST WED JAN 21 1998

TIME(CST)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

248 PM     KOUNTZE                   TX   1.75 INCH HAIL
01/21/98   TYLER
                                          KFDM TV-6 METEOROLOGIST
                                          REPORTED GOLF BALL SIZE
                                          HAIL FROM OBSERVER.

316 PM     FRED                      TX   1.00 INCH HAIL
01/21/98   TYLER                          PUBLIC REPORTED QUARTER SIZE
                                          HAIL.

Local storm report, Jan 21, 3:19 PM CST, 16 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
319 PM CST WED JAN 21 1998

TIME(CST)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

248 PM     KOUNTZE                   TX   1.75 INCH HAIL
01/21/98   HARDIN
                                          KFDM TV-6 METEOROLOGIST
                                          REPORTED GOLF BALL SIZE
                                          HAIL FROM OBSERVER.

316 PM     FRED                      TX   1.00 INCH HAIL
01/21/98   TYLER                          PUBLIC REPORTED QUARTER SIZE
                                          HAIL.

Local storm report, Jan 21, 3:19 PM CST, 16 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
319 PM CST WED JAN 21 1998

TIME(CST)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

248 PM     KOUNTZE                   TX   1.75 INCH HAIL
01/21/98   TYLER
                                          KFDM TV-6 METEOROLOGIST
                                          REPORTED GOLF BALL SIZE
                                          HAIL FROM OBSERVER.

316 PM     FRED                      TX   1.00 INCH HAIL
01/21/98   TYLER                          PUBLIC REPORTED QUARTER SIZE
                                          HAIL.

Local storm report, Jan 21, 3:19 PM CST, 16 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
319 PM CST WED JAN 21 1998

TIME(CST)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

248 PM     KOUNTZE                   TX   1.75 INCH HAIL
01/21/98   HARDIN
                                          KFDM TV-6 METEOROLOGIST
                                          REPORTED GOLF BALL SIZE
                                          HAIL FROM OBSERVER.

316 PM     FRED                      TX   1.00 INCH HAIL
01/21/98   TYLER                          PUBLIC REPORTED QUARTER SIZE
                                          HAIL.

The office that day

Everything else NWS Lake Charles, LA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 21, 2:36 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Hardin	64 min
Jan 21, 3:08 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Jasper, Tyler	47 min
Jan 21, 4:52 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LCH	Jasper	48 min
Jan 21, 5:07 PM CST	Tornado Warning	LCH	Jasper	28 min
Jan 21, 5:25 PM CST	Tornado Warning	LCH	Newton	50 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Texas, 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.