Alert archive / Texas / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 11, NWS Midland/Odessa, TX

October 27, 1998Reeves County, Texas

NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued this tornado warning at Oct 27, 1998, 4:30 PM CST for Reeves County, Texas. It was in force for 30 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: Oct 27, 1998, 4:30 PM CST (22:30 UTC)
Expired: Oct 27, 1998, 5:00 PM CST
In force: 30 min
Issued by: NWS Midland/Odessa, TX
Area: Whole counties

County Reeves County, TX

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 158 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:34 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
Oct 27, 4:35 PM CST	Hail 1.25	Orla, TX	This storm broke out windows at the Orla Post Office before going on to produce a tornado to the northeast of Orla.
Oct 27, 4:45 PM CST	Tornado F1	Orla, TX	A spotter reported to Emergency Management Officials that a large tornado formed northeast of Orla and lasted about 5-6 minutes. This storm was a right-moving supercell that had persisted for over two hours. No damage was reported as the tornado was over open

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

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), launched 12:00Z, 10.5 hours before the alert went out and 158 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: 14 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -232 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 777 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 120 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 122 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.

056 
WFUS1 KMAF 272232 RRA
TORMAF

TXC389-272300-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND TX
430 PM CST TUE OCT 27 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MIDLAND HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  NORTHERN REEVES COUNTY IN WESTERN TEXAS

* UNTIL 500 PM CST

* AT 428 PM CST... MIDLAND DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A DEVELOPING
  TORNADO 26 MILES WEST OF MENTONE OR 7 MILES WEST OF ORLA... MOVING
  EAST AT 30 MPH.

* SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO ARE...ORLA.

IF YOU ARE IN A CAR...GO IN A NEARBY STURDY BUILDING AS A LAST
RESORT LIE FLAT IN A DITCH AND COVER YOUR HEAD.

JD/RSB/JF

&

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this tornado warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Midland/Odessa, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before this tornado warning went out at Oct 27, 3:00 PM CST, 1 hour 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 27, 3:00 PM CST, 1 hour 30 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND TX
259 PM CST (159 PM MST) TUE OCT 27 1998

CURRENT KMAF 88D/LDS EQUIPMENT SHOWS FIRST WAVE OF CONVECTIVE
ACTIVITY ON THE WANE IN NW CWA.  MOST ACTIVITY IS NOW -SHRA IN NM
ZONES...THE PERMIAN BASIN...AND THE S PLAINS.  EARLIER ACTIVITY DUE
TO GOOD UPPER LVL DIV AND LO LVL CONV AS A RESULT OF BEING IN RRQ OF
H2 JET.  BELIEVE CLOUD COVER HELPED KEEP THINGS TO A MINIMUM
THROUGHOUT.  ST RAPIDLY CLEARING OUT IN THE W...ONLY TO BE REPLACED
BY CLOUD STREETS TO THE SW.  FARTHER W...COLD FNT EXTENDS ALONG AZ/NM
BORDER INTO CHIHUAHUA...W CLEAR SKIES BEYOND.  FROPA NOT READILY
APPARENT LOOKING AT SFC OBS.  HOWEVER...THIS IS CLEARLY EVIDENT IN
THE SATELLITE PICS.  NOTING TIMING OF FRONT....ALONG WITH SOME
PROGGED MID LVL CAA OVERNIGHT...CANT RULE OUT THE POSSIBILITY OF
MORE ACTIVITY DURING AT LEAST THE 1ST PD.  ALSO...BELIEVE HI DEWPTS
OVERNIGHT COULD RESULT IN BR FORMING IN PLACES NEAR MORNING.

SYNOPTICALLY...CLOSED LOW OVER NERN NV BEGINNING TO OPEN AS IT
INCREASES IN TILT NEGATIVELY.  IF MODELS ARE RIGHT...THIS WILL NOT
MOVE FAR ENOUGH S TO AFFECT CWA...KEEPING ALL ACTIVITY IN N NM AND
THE TX PANHANDLE...AND LEAVING THE CWA IN A DRY SWLY FLOW FOR THE
THRU AT LEAST THU.

MAF 60/79 40/20
CNM 56/83 50/--
MRF 46/78 30/10
P07 61/86 40/--

JD/SMD/RJN

The office that day

Everything else NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 27, 3:48 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Culberson	32 min
Oct 27, 4:06 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Culberson	34 min
Oct 27, 4:14 PM CST	Tornado Warning	MAF	Culberson	31 min
Oct 27, 4:33 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Culberson, Jeff Davis	47 min
Oct 27, 4:44 PM CST	Tornado Warning	MAF	Culberson	31 min
Oct 27, 5:02 PM CST	Tornado Warning	MAF	Loving, Reeves	33 min
Oct 27, 5:34 PM CST	Tornado Warning	MAF	Loving, Reeves	46 min
Oct 27, 5:34 PM CST	Tornado Warning	MAF	Winkler	46 min
Oct 27, 5:41 PM CST	Tornado Warning	MAF	Andrews, Gaines	34 min
Oct 27, 5:50 PM CST	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Loving	95 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Texas, 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.