Alert archive / Texas / Flash Flood Warnings in 1999

Flash Flood Warning 11, NWS Midland/Odessa, TX

April 30, 1999Gaines County, Texas

NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued this flash flood warning at Apr 30, 1999, 7:16 PM CDT for Gaines County, Texas. It was in force for 3 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The outline the Iowa Environmental Mesonet reconstructed for it; the warning itself named whole counties.

The facts

Issued: Apr 30, 1999, 7:16 PM CDT (00:16 UTC)
Expired: Apr 30, 1999, 10:15 PM CDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Midland/Odessa, TX
Area: Whole counties; the outline is the Mesonet’s reconstruction

County Gaines County, TX

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 101 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:18 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 nearest sounding before it

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), launched 00:00Z, 0.3 hours before the alert went out and 100 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: 386 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -93 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1365 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 59 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 74 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 146 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.1
Supercell composite: 1.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
TTAA00 KMAF 010021
FFWMAF
TXC165-010315-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND-ODESSA TX
716 PM CDT FRI APR 30 1999

THE MIDLAND-ODESSA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  CENTRAL GAINES COUNTY IN TEXAS
  THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF SEMINOLE

* UNTIL 1015 PM CDT

* AT 712 PM CDT...WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR DETECTED VERY HEAVY 
  RAIN OVER CENTRAL GAINES COUNTY INCLULDING THE CITY OF SEMINOLE. 
  RADAR ESTIMATES OF 3-4 INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN OVER PORTIONS OF 
  CENTRAL GAINES COUNTY SINCE 6 PM CDT. ADDITIONAL STORM EXPECTED 
  THROUGH 8 PM CDT WILL INCREASE THE FLASH FLOODING THREAT.

IF FLOODING IS OBSERVED...ACT QUICKLY TO ESCAPE FLOOD WATERS. DO NOT
STAY IN AREAS SUBJECT TO FLOODING WHEN WATER BEGINS RISING.

DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH FLOODED AREAS. SHALLOW...SWIFTLY FLOWING WATER
CAN WASH A CAR FROM A ROADWAY. ALSO...THE ROADBED MAY NOT BE INTACT
UNDER THE WATER.

LAT...LON 3274 10279 3262 10264 3290 10226 3290 10260

BF

What forecasters said that day

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

NWS Midland/Odessa, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Apr 30, 2:00 PM CDT, 5 hours 16 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 30, 2:00 PM CDT, 5 hours 16 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND TX
200 PM CDT FRI APR 30 1999

SIGNIFICANT CONVECTION CONTINUING THIS AFTERNOON. AIRMASS ACROSS THE
AREA REMAINS MOIST AND UNSTABLE...AND A SERIES OF SHORTWAVES
ROTATING AROUND THE UPPER LOW OVER AZ WILL LIKELY KEEP CONVECTION
ACTIVE ACROSS THE AREA THROUGH THIS EVENING. AXIS OF THE THETA-
E RIDGE ACROSS THE AREA REMAINS ROUGHLY ACROSS THE MIDDLE SECTION OF
THE CWA...AND PROGS GRADUALLY SHIFT THIS INTO THE EASTERN CWA BY
TOMORROW AFTERNOON. UPPER LEVEL DIFLUENCE ACROSS THE CWA WAS QUITE
IMPRESSIVE THIS MORNING. AREA OF BEST DIFLUENCE WILL PROPOGATE INTO
NORTHERN TX AND SOUTHERN OK LATE TONIGHT. DRYLINE TO THE WEST HAS
BEEN ADVANCING VERY SLOWLY THROUGHOUT THE DAY...WITH STORMS FIRING
UP ALONG ITS BOUNDARY CONTINUOUSLY AND TRAINING NWD AND NEWD. LOOKS
AS IF A NARROW DRY SLOT OVR FAR WEST TX WILL BEGIN ROTATING INTO THE
AREA LATER TONIGHT...AFFECTING PORTIONS OF THE CWA UNTIL EARLY
MORNING. WILL STILL KEEP SCT POPS IN AREA OVERNIGHT WITH THE MOIST
AIRMASS AND PVA ALOFT...BUT WILL NEED TO KEEP THIS IN MIND.

MODELS SLOWLY ADVANCE THE LOW AND BEGIN LIFTING IT OUT LATE
TOMORROW. MODELS ALWAYS TRY TO LIFT THESE UPPER LOWS OUT TOO
QUICKLY...SO I WILL TAKE THIS INTO ACCOUNT WITH THE FORECAST. BY
MIDDAY TOMORROW...IT LOOKS AS IF THE UPPER LEVEL FLOW WILL BECOME
MORE SWLY WITH THE APPROACH OF THE LOW...AND THIS SHOULD HELP THE
DRYLINE PUSH FURTHER EWD. WITH THE MOIST AIRMASS AND UPPER LEVEL
DISTURBANCES PROPOGATING AROUND THE LOW...WILL NEED TO KEEP POPS UP
FOR TOMORROW. TOMORROW NIGHT THE LOW WILL STILL BE IN THE VICINITY...
AND WILL KEEP POPS IN AS WELL.

THE MAIN CHALLENGE WILL BE WHAT TO DO WITH SUNDAY. MODELS LIFT LOW
AND ASSOCIATED VORT ENERGY NWD AWAY FROM THE AREA...AND DRIER SFC
AIR IS PROGGED TO OVERRUN THE AREA. HOWEVER...CONSIDERING THE FACT
THAT THE LOW WILL PROBABLY MOVE OUT MORE SLOWLY...WILL HAVE TO KEEP
SOME CLOUDS AROUND DURING THE DAY...AND POSSIBLY EVEN SOME LINGERING
MORNING POPS.

LBB...WORKZONES FORTHCOMING...WILL BE A FEW MINUTES LATE.

PRELIM TEMPS/POPS
MAF 57/75/54/79 6542
CNM 51/75/47/80 543-
MRF 45/74/41/78 222-
P07 60/78/59/79 3431

DJK

The office that day

Everything else NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 30, 7:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Gaines	39 min
Apr 30, 9:58 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Dawson, Gaines	107 min
Apr 30, 10:19 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Dawson	101 min
Apr 30, 11:30 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Borden	2 hr
May 1, 2:37 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Andrews	68 min
May 1, 3:20 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Gaines	3 hr
May 1, 3:58 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Andrews, Ector	32 min
May 1, 4:06 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Gaines	24 min
May 1, 4:25 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Dawson, Gaines	35 min
May 1, 4:29 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Andrews	46 min
May 1, 4:56 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Dawson	34 min
May 1, 5:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Martin	24 min
May 1, 5:56 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Martin	34 min
May 1, 6:30 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Martin	30 min

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Texas, 1999 Every flash flood 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.