Alert archive / Oklahoma / Tornado Warnings in 1998
Tornado Warning 21, NWS Tulsa, OK
NWS Tulsa, OK issued this tornado warning at May 6, 1998, 8:18 PM CDT for LeFlore County, Oklahoma. It was in force for 42 min. 7 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
- May 6, 1998, 8:18 PM CDT (01:18 UTC)
- Expired
- May 6, 1998, 9:00 PM CDT
- In force
- 42 min
- Issued by
- NWS Tulsa, OK
- Area
- Whole counties
County LeFlore County, OK
The radar
The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 53 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:17 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 6, 8:35 PM CDT | Hail 0.88 | Panama, OK | |
| May 6, 8:38 PM CDT | Tornado F1 | Calhoun, OK | At 838 PM CDT, a tornado touched down in the small community of Calhoun. Six homes in Calhoun were damaged, four of which were considered destroyed. One of the six was a mobile home. Two minor injuries occurred when a home was lifted off of its concrete blo |
| May 6, 8:42 PM CDT | Hail 1 | Panama, OK | |
| May 6, 8:44 PM CDT | Hail 1 | Bokoshe, OK | |
| May 6, 8:44 PM CDT | Thunderstorm Wind 50 | Poteau, OK | |
| May 6, 8:54 PM CDT | Hail 1.5 | Poteau, OK | |
| May 6, 8:54 PM CDT | Thunderstorm Wind 52 | Poteau, OK | Several houses in Poteau were damaged, and several trees were blown down. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 6, 8:00 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Springfield, MO (KSGF), launched 00:00Z, 1.3 hours before the alert went out and 237 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
- 1358 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1166 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 26 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 178 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.5
- Supercell composite
- 2.9
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
200 WFUS54 KTSA 070119 RRA TORTUL OKC079-070200- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK 818 PM CDT WED MAY 6 1998 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TULSA HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... NORTHERN LE FLORE COUNTY - SOUTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA * UNTIL 900 PM CDT * AT 815 PM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR DETECTED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WITH STRONG ROTATION 4 MILES NORTH OF MCCURTAIN. A TORNADO COULD FORM AT ANY TIME AS THIS STORM MOVES EAST AT 25 MPH. * THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS ARE NEAR THE PATH OF THIS STORM... BOKOSHE LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS WILL ALSO ACCOMPANY THIS STORM. MOVE TO A SAFE PLACE IMMEDIATELY THE SAFEST PLACE IN A TORNADO IS BELOW GROUND. IF A BASEMENT OR STORM CELLAR IS NOT AVAILABLE...GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR. GET UNDER SOMETHING STURDY AND USE BLANKETS AND PILLOWS TO PROTECT YOUR HEAD AND BODY FROM FLYING DEBRIS. AVOID WINDOWS AND LARGE ROOMS. ABANDON MOBILE HOMES AND AUTOMOBILES FOR MORE SUBSTANTIAL SHELTER. AS A LAST RESORT TAKE COVER IN A DITCH.
The office that day
Everything else NWS Tulsa, OK issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 6, 7:21 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TSA | Delaware | 54 min |
| May 6, 7:25 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TSA | Haskell | 80 min |
| May 6, 7:32 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TSA | Adair, Cherokee | 58 min |
| May 6, 7:46 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | TSA | Adair | 29 min |
| May 6, 8:05 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | TSA | Adair | 25 min |
| May 6, 8:09 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | TSA | Haskell | 36 min |
| May 6, 8:12 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TSA | Muskogee, Okmulgee | 33 min |
| May 6, 8:15 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | TSA | Sequoyah | 45 min |
| May 6, 8:30 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | TSA | Pittsburg | 45 min |
| May 6, 8:34 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | TSA | Muskogee | 26 min |
| May 6, 8:56 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | TSA | LeFlore | 34 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Oklahoma, 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.