Alert archive / Illinois / Tornado Watches in 1998

Tornado Watch 216

April 15, 199828 counties in Illinois; 5 counties in Kentucky; 14 counties in Missouri

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Apr 15, 1998, 4:30 PM CDT for 28 counties in Illinois; 5 counties in Kentucky; 14 counties in Missouri. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Apr 15, 1998, 4:30 PM CDT (21:30 UTC)
Expired: Apr 15, 1998, 11:00 PM CDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 47 counties

Alexander County, IL, Clay County, IL, Clinton County, IL, Edwards County, IL, Franklin County, IL, Gallatin County, IL, Hamilton County, IL, Jackson County, IL, Jefferson County, IL, Johnson County, IL, Lawrence County, IL, Madison County, IL, Marion County, IL, Massac County, IL, Monroe County, IL, Perry County, IL, Pope County, IL, Pulaski County, IL, Randolph County, IL, Richland County, IL, Saint Clair County, IL, Saline County, IL, Union County, IL, Wabash County, IL, Washington County, IL, Wayne County, IL, White County, IL, Williamson County, IL, Ballard County, KY, Carlisle County, KY, Fulton County, KY, Hickman County, KY, McCracken County, KY, Bollinger County, MO, Butler County, MO, Cape Girardeau County, MO, Carter County, MO, Madison County, MO, Mississippi County, MO, New Madrid County, MO, Perry County, MO, Ripley County, MO, Saint Francois County, MO, Sainte Genevieve County, MO, Scott County, MO, Stoddard County, MO, Wayne County, MO

The radar

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 96 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:31 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.

Warnings issued inside it

31 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 15, 5:02 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Monroe, Randolph	63 min
Apr 15, 5:24 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Saint Clair	66 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, 6:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Perry	61 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
Apr 15, 7:00 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Monroe, Saint Clair	65 min
Apr 15, 7:23 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Jefferson	52 min
Apr 15, 7:51 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Marion	49 min
Apr 15, 7:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Washington	48 min
Apr 15, 8:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Perry	57 min
Apr 15, 8:22 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ILX	Clay	53 min
Apr 15, 8:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Madison	50 min
Apr 15, 8:34 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Jackson	56 min
Apr 15, 8:35 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	PAH	Perry	3 hr
Apr 15, 8:39 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Madison	51 min
Apr 15, 8:45 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ILX	Jasper, Richland	60 min
Apr 15, 9:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Bollinger	49 min
Apr 15, 9:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Bollinger	44 min
Apr 15, 9:19 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Madison	46 min
Apr 15, 9:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Sainte Genevieve, Saint Francois	63 min
Apr 15, 9:30 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Jackson, Williamson	45 min
Apr 15, 9:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Perry	49 min
Apr 15, 9:38 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	PAH	Jackson	2 hr
Apr 15, 9:42 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Franklin	48 min
Apr 15, 10:02 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Jackson	58 min
Apr 15, 10:02 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Jackson	63 min
Apr 15, 10:20 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	PAH	Franklin, Williamson	3 hr
Apr 15, 10:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Hamilton, White	54 min

The nearest sounding before it

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), launched 12:00Z, 9.5 hours before the alert went out and 316 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: 767 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -65 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 716 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 53 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 134 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 163 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 5.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 15, 3:15 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Boone, Bureau, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage and 32 more	6 hr
Apr 14, 9:15 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Andrew, Bates, Buchanan, Caldwell, Carroll, Cass and 16 more	6 hr
Apr 14, 11:45 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barry, Barton, Benton, Boone, Callaway, Camden and 31 more	5 hr
Apr 15, 1:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barry, Benton, Camden, Carter, Cedar, Christian and 34 more	6 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Illinois, 1998 Tornado Watches in Missouri, 1998 Tornado Watches in Kentucky, 1998 Every tornado watch 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.