Alert archive / Texas / Tornado Watches in 1999

Tornado Watch 301

May 20, 199911 counties in Kansas; 18 counties in Oklahoma; 23 counties in Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 20, 1999, 3:15 PM CDT for 11 counties in Kansas; 18 counties in Oklahoma; 23 counties in Texas. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued
May 20, 1999, 3:15 PM CDT (20:15 UTC)
Expired
May 20, 1999, 9:00 PM CDT
In force
6 hr
Issued by
the Storm Prediction Center
All 52 counties

Barber County, KS, Clark County, KS, Comanche County, KS, Ford County, KS, Gray County, KS, Haskell County, KS, Kingman County, KS, Kiowa County, KS, Meade County, KS, Pratt County, KS, Seward County, KS, Alfalfa County, OK, Beaver County, OK, Beckham County, OK, Blaine County, OK, Custer County, OK, Dewey County, OK, Ellis County, OK, Greer County, OK, Harmon County, OK, Harper County, OK, Jackson County, OK, Kiowa County, OK, Major County, OK, Roger Mills County, OK, Tillman County, OK, Washita County, OK, Woods County, OK, Woodward County, OK, Armstrong County, TX, Baylor County, TX, Briscoe County, TX, Childress County, TX, Collingsworth County, TX, Cottle County, TX, Crosby County, TX, Dickens County, TX, Donley County, TX, Floyd County, TX, Foard County, TX, Gray County, TX, Hall County, TX, Hardeman County, TX, Hemphill County, TX, King County, TX, Knox County, TX, Lipscomb County, TX, Motley County, TX, Ochiltree County, TX, Roberts County, TX, Wheeler County, TX, Wilbarger County, TX

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 136 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:15 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

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

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 20, 4:29 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDCSeward46 min
May 20, 4:41 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMAGray49 min
May 20, 5:02 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDCHaskell, Meade, Seward48 min
May 20, 5:24 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDCGray46 min
May 20, 5:25 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMAGray65 min
May 20, 5:46 PM CDTTornado WarningAMAGray44 min
May 20, 5:49 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDCClark, Meade46 min
May 20, 6:09 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMABeaver51 min
May 20, 6:18 PM CDTTornado WarningAMADonley, Gray42 min
May 20, 6:22 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUNHarper38 min
May 20, 6:38 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDCClark, Comanche47 min
May 20, 6:46 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMALipscomb59 min
May 20, 6:55 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMABeaver35 min
May 20, 6:57 PM CDTTornado WarningAMADonley63 min
May 20, 6:59 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUNEllis, Harper46 min
May 20, 7:16 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMARoberts44 min
May 20, 7:26 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDCPratt49 min
May 20, 7:38 PM CDTTornado WarningLUBChildress, Hall67 min
May 20, 7:41 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUNEllis49 min
May 20, 7:49 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMACollingsworth56 min
May 20, 7:57 PM CDTTornado WarningAMADonley33 min
May 20, 8:11 PM CDTTornado WarningAMACollingsworth, Donley34 min
May 20, 8:16 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUNWoodward44 min
May 20, 8:24 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICTKingman66 min
May 20, 8:42 PM CDTTornado WarningLUBChildress48 min
May 20, 8:59 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOUNWoodward31 min
May 20, 9:00 PM CDTTornado WarningOUNHarmon, Jackson45 min

The nearest sounding before it

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), launched 12:00Z, 8.3 hours before the alert went out and 135 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-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1999-05-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 759 joules per kilogram.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1999-05-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 319 square meters per square second.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
759 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-376 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1104 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
319 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
367 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0

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.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 20, 2:30 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCBarton, Clay, Cloud, Dickinson, Ellis, Ellsworth and 26 more7 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Texas, 1999Tornado Watches in Oklahoma, 1999Tornado Watches in Kansas, 1999Every tornado watch 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.