Alert archive / Minnesota / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 52, NWS Twin Cities, MN

July 20, 1998Nicollet County, Minnesota

NWS Twin Cities, MN issued this tornado warning at Jul 20, 1998, 11:43 AM CDT for Nicollet County, Minnesota. It was in force for 32 min. 9 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: Jul 20, 1998, 11:43 AM CDT (16:43 UTC)
Expired: Jul 20, 1998, 12:15 PM CDT
In force: 32 min
Issued by: NWS Twin Cities, MN
Area: Whole counties

County Nicollet County, MN

The radar

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 77 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 16:44 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
Jul 20, 11:50 AM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 80	Courtland, MN	Grain elevator sustained extensive damage. Apartment building garage damaged. Firehall damaged. Trees down. Estimated windspeed
Jul 20, 11:50 AM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 80	Courtland, MN	Extensive farm damage. Shed destroyed. Roof to chicken house blown off. Estimated windspeed.
Jul 20, 11:50 AM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 80	Courtland, MN	Garages and barns destroyed. Estimated windspeed.
Jul 20, 11:51 AM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 75	Courtland, MN	Roof torn off barn. Shed destroyed. Estimated windspeed.
Jul 20, 12:00 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 80	Nicollet, MN	Roof torn off high school gymnasium resulting in water damage to floor. Garage walls blown down at pair of houses in northwestern part of town. High winds affected 100,000 to 115,000 acres across Nicollet county. 50,000 acres of crops severely damaged. Da
Jul 20, 12:00 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 75	Nicollet, MN	Hog barn destroyed. 500 acres of corn flattened.
Jul 20, 12:04 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 80	Nicollet, MN	Shingles off roof. Trees blown down. Estimated windspeed.
Jul 20, 12:05 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 80	Nicollet, MN	Barns and sheds blown down. Estimated windspeed.
Jul 20, 12:10 PM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind 52	St Peter, MN	Trees blown down. New roof construction destroyed. Several homes and businesses had roof damage. Mobile homes damaged in Summit Park. Windows broken at Gustavus Adolphus College. Stronger wind gusts in surrounding areas.

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

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), launched 12:00Z, 4.7 hours before the alert went out and 76 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: 2372 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 63 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 103 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.

896 
WFUS1 KMSP 201642 RRA
TORMSP
MNC103-201715-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
1143 AM CDT MON JUL 20 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN THE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN HAS
ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  NICOLLET COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL MINNESOTA

* UNTIL 1215 PM CDT

* AT 1140 AM CDT...DOPPLER RADAR DETECTED A POSSIBLE TORNADO 5
  NORTHWEST OF NEW ULM NEAR THE NICOLLET COUNTY LINE.  THE STORM WAS
  MOVING EAST AT 40 MPH.

* SOME LOCATIONS AFFECTED
    NEW ULM
    KLOSSNER
    COURTLAND

GO TO THE BASEMENT OR A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR

 WH

The office that day

Everything else NWS Twin Cities, MN issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 20, 10:19 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Redwood	56 min
Jul 20, 10:51 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Brown	64 min
Jul 20, 11:35 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Blue Earth, Nicollet	60 min
Jul 20, 12:05 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Le Sueur	40 min
Jul 20, 12:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Rice	63 min
Jul 20, 12:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Goodhue	64 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Minnesota, 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.