Alert archive / Illinois / Tornado Warnings in 1998
Tornado Warning 31, NWS St. Louis, MO
NWS St. Louis, MO issued this tornado warning at Apr 15, 1998, 5:24 PM CDT for Saint Clair County, Illinois. It was in force for 66 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
- Apr 15, 1998, 5:24 PM CDT (22:24 UTC)
- Expired
- Apr 15, 1998, 6:30 PM CDT
- In force
- 66 min
- Issued by
- NWS St. Louis, MO
- Area
- Whole counties
County Saint Clair County, IL
The radar
The St Louis radar (KLSX), 70 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:25 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 15, 6:03 PM CDT | Hail 1.75 | Marissa, IL | Golfball size hail fell for several minutes in Marissa. |
| Apr 15, 6:12 PM CDT | Tornado F0 | Marissa, IL | The Marissa Fire Chief reported a small tornado near the fire station. Damage consisted of a few downed trees, the bleachers at a baseball field were destroyed, and a trash dumpster was blown into the side of a building breaking some bricks. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 15, 4:30 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | 7 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Lincoln, IL (KILX), launched 12:00Z, 10.4 hours before the alert went out and 219 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- No buoyant parcel
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 927 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 53 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 459 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 751 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
558 WFUS1 KSTL 152226 RRA TORSTL ILC163-152330- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO 524 PM CDT WED APR 15 1998 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN ST LOUIS HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... ST CLAIR COUNTY IN SOUTHWESTERN ILLINOIS * UNTIL 630 PM CDT * AT AT 524 PM CDT... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO NEAR MAEYSTOWN IL... MOVING EAST AT 25 MPH. * LOCATIONS IN THE PATH... MARISSA LENZBURG NEW ATHENS THE TORNADO AND VERY LARGE HAIL WERE REPORTED WEST OF CRYSTAL CITY A TORNADO IS ON THE GROUND IN YOU ARE IN THE PATH...MOVE IMMEDIATELY TO A SUBSTANTIAL STRUCTURE NOW FOR PROTECTION. A BASEMENT OFFERS THE BEST SHELTER. YOUR LIFE AND THE LIVES OF THOSE AROUND YOU MAY DEPEND ON YOUR ACTIONS. PEDIGO &
The office that day
Everything else NWS St. Louis, MO issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 15, 5:02 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | LSX | Monroe, Randolph | 63 min |
| Apr 15, 5:48 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | LSX | Randolph | 62 min |
| Apr 15, 6:01 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | LSX | Washington | 64 min |
| Apr 15, 6:24 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LSX | Monroe | 61 min |
| Apr 15, 6:56 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | LSX | Washington | 64 min |
| Apr 15, 6:58 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | LSX | Bond, Clinton, Madison | 62 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Illinois, 1998Every tornado warning in 1998Tornadoes 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.