Alert archive / Wyoming / Tornado Warnings in 1998
Tornado Warning 2, NWS Rapid City, SD
NWS Rapid City, SD issued this tornado warning at May 20, 1998, 3:21 PM MDT for Weston County, Wyoming. It was in force for 29 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.
The area
The counties it named.
The facts
- Issued
- May 20, 1998, 3:21 PM MDT (21:21 UTC)
- Expired
- May 20, 1998, 3:50 PM MDT
- In force
- 29 min
- Issued by
- NWS Rapid City, SD
- Area
- Whole counties
County Weston County, WY
The radar
The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 143 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:22 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.
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 20, 1:30 PM MDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Riverton, WY (KRIW), launched 12:00Z, 9.4 hours before the alert went out and 321 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
- 2007 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 93 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 247 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
The text
The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.
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 Rapid City, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before this tornado warning went out at May 20, 10:05 AM MDT, 5 hours 16 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, May 20, 10:05 AM MDT, 5 hours 16 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR WESTERN SD AND NORTHEASTERN WY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RAPID CITY SD...CORRECTED DATE/TIME 1005 AM MDT WED MAY 20 1998 H20 VAP STLT LOOP SHOWS WHAT 12Z ETA SAYS IN THAT WK WAVE TO MOVE THROUGH NE WY AND WRN SD MIDDAY AND THIS AFTERNOON. WOULD LOOK FOR A LITTLE INTENSIFICATION OF -TSRA CURRENTLY OVR WRN WY...BUT UNSURE ABOUT REDEVELOPMENT AFTER THIS BATCH OF SHOWERS PASS. CLD COVER CURRENTLY SUPPRESSING HEATING OVR SD SO DEVELOPMENT WOULD HAVE TO OCCUR IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS IN ERN WY...THEN MOVE INTO WRN SD. RUC2 SFC SHOWS AREA OF SFC H20 CONV IN ERN WY BY 00Z...ETA HAS THIS SAME FEATURE A LITTLE SOONER THEN MOVES IT EAST INTO WRN SD. SO I GUESS THAT MDLS MATCH UP WELL WITH CURRENT FCST AND I SHOULDNT NEED TO UPDATE. ALSO ISSUED SPS FOR SLIGHT RISK OF SVR NE WY AND WRN SD AS SHEAR AROUND 25 M/S AND CAPES A2500 SHOULD BE ENOUGH FOR A SUPERCELL OR TWO. .UNR...NONE. BAILEY SPECI KUNR 201605Z 13012KT 17/13
In the hours before
Special weather statement, May 20, 9:40 AM MDT, 5 hours 41 minutes before
SDZ001-002-012>014-024>032-041>044-046-047-049-WYZ054>058-220600- SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK...CORRECTED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RAPID CITY SD 940 AM MDT THU MAY 20 1998 THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS OVER SOUTH CENTRAL AND WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA AND NORTHEAST WYOMING THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. LOCATIONS SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 90 WILL HAVE THE BEST CHANCE FOR SEVERE WEATHER. THE MAIN THREAT FROM THE STORMS WILL BE LARGE HAIL AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL. INCREASING MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIR COMBINED WITH AN UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL CONTINUE TO PRODUCE THUNDERSTORMS TODAY. THESE STORMS WILL FURTHER INTENSIFY THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. WYCJIN-WYNE BAILEY
The office that day
Everything else NWS Rapid City, SD issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 20, 2:49 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | UNR | Weston | 46 min |
| May 20, 3:21 PM MDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Weston | 34 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Wyoming, 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.