Alert archive / North Dakota / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1999

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 14, NWS Bismarck, ND

May 21, 1999Billings County, Dunn County, North Dakota

NWS Bismarck, ND issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 21, 1999, 6:27 PM MDT for Billings County, Dunn County, North Dakota. It was in force for 48 min. 1 report 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 21, 1999, 6:27 PM MDT (00:27 UTC)
Expired: May 21, 1999, 7:15 PM MDT
In force: 48 min
Issued by: NWS Bismarck, ND
Area: Whole counties; the outline is the Mesonet’s reconstruction

Counties Billings County, ND, Dunn County, ND

The radar

The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 176 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:26 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 21, 6:42 PM MDT	Hail 0.75	Killdeer, ND

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 21, 2:00 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 00:00Z, 0.5 hours before the alert went out and 180 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: 122 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -12 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1272 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 86 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 286 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.1

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.

What forecasters said that day

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

NWS Bismarck, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at May 21, 2:40 PM MDT, 3 hours 47 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 21, 2:40 PM MDT, 3 hours 47 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
340 PM CDT FRI MAY 21 1999

LINE OF TSTMS HAS ENTERED WRN ND. WATCH WAS ISSUED FOR SWRN AND
PARTS OF S CNTRL ND BY SPC ALREADY. HAVE ISSUED ZONES EARLY RATHER
THAN UPDATE OLD PACKAGE.

MODELS IN FAIR AGREEMENT WITH POSITION OF FEATURES. SFC LOW IS IN
WY/SD/SWRN ND/SERN MT AREA AND PROGGED TO APPROACH S CNTRL ND BY
06Z...AND BE NEAR JMS BY 12Z. SVR TSTMS THIS EVE...BUT SUSPECT SVR
LEVELS WL NOT CONTINUE AFT MID IN ND. CHC TSTMS FROM BIS/MOT AND
EAST ON SAT AS LIS BELOW ZERO...AND A VORT MAX MOVES IN FAST FROM
THE WEST. WL KEEP CHC IN JMS SAT EVE AS SYSTEM PROGRESSES EAST.
CLOUDY BUT DRY FOR SAT NIGHT AND SUN. MAY GET WINDIER THAN 10 TO 20
MPH...BUT MAY NOT HAPPEN UNTIL SAT NIGHT. EXTENDED STILL LOOKS DRY
WITH TEMPS IN THE 70S...MAYBE 80S.

.BIS...SVR TSTM WATCH UNTIL 0200Z SW AND S CNTRL
(DIK...BIS...BOWMAN...FT YATES)

VINING

The office that day

Everything else NWS Bismarck, ND issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 21, 6:00 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Billings	45 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in North Dakota, 1999 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1999

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.