Alert archive / North Dakota / Tornado Watches in 1999

Tornado Watch 366

June 3, 1999Richland County, Roosevelt County, Sheridan County, Montana; 23 counties in North Dakota

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Jun 3, 1999, 2:00 PM MDT for Richland County, Roosevelt County, Sheridan County, Montana; 23 counties in North Dakota. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jun 3, 1999, 2:00 PM MDT (20:00 UTC)
Expired: Jun 3, 1999, 7:00 PM MDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 26 counties

Richland County, MT, Roosevelt County, MT, Sheridan County, MT, Adams County, ND, Billings County, ND, Burke County, ND, Burleigh County, ND, Divide County, ND, Dunn County, ND, Emmons County, ND, Golden Valley County, ND, Grant County, ND, Hettinger County, ND, Logan County, ND, McIntosh County, ND, McKenzie County, ND, McLean County, ND, Mercer County, ND, Morton County, ND, Mountrail County, ND, Oliver County, ND, Renville County, ND, Sioux County, ND, Stark County, ND, Ward County, ND, Williams County, ND

The radar

The Minot AFB radar (KMBX), 117 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:03 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

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 3, 2:07 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Grant, Sioux	38 min
Jun 3, 2:25 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Grant, Morton	35 min
Jun 3, 2:41 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Divide	64 min
Jun 3, 2:57 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Morton, Sioux	33 min
Jun 3, 3:05 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Mercer, Morton, Oliver	40 min
Jun 3, 3:33 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Burleigh, Emmons, Morton, Sioux	57 min
Jun 3, 3:52 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	McLean, Oliver	38 min
Jun 3, 4:14 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Burleigh, Emmons	31 min
Jun 3, 4:23 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	McLean	52 min
Jun 3, 4:40 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	McLean	35 min
Jun 3, 4:47 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Burleigh, Kidder	28 min
Jun 3, 5:19 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	McHenry, McLean	56 min

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 12:00Z, 8.0 hours before the alert went out and 159 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 897 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -20 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -163 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

127 
WWUS9 KMKC 031925 COR
SEL6  
MKC WW 031925 COR
NDZ000-MTZ000-040100-

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 366
STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
222 PM CDT THU JUN 3 1999

THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF

   WESTERN NORTH DAKOTA                       
   NORTHEAST MONTANA                            

EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 300 PM UNTIL 800
PM CDT.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS
TO 70 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS ALONG AND 95 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST
OF A LINE FROM 60 MILES NORTH OF WILLISTON NORTH DAKOTA TO 55 MILES
EAST OF LEMMON SOUTH DAKOTA.

REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR
TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA. 
PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THREATENING
WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE
WARNINGS.

DISCUSSION...AIRMASS HAS RAPIDLY DESTABILIZED INTO WRN ND WITH
CAPES TO 2500 J/KG.  WITH UPPER TROUGH ROTATING THRU AREA AND COLD
FRONT MOVING INTO WRN ND...STORMS EXPECTED TO RAPIDLY DEVELOP ALONG
AND AHEAD OF FRONT.  WITH FAVORABLE WINDS PROFILES AND
INSTABILITY...SUPERCELLS AND ISOLATED TORNADOS EXPECTED.

AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 2 INCHES.  EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND
GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS.  A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 450. 
MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 20035.


...HALES

490,1013 455,0990 455,1030 490,1054

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 3, 5:00 PM MDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barnes, Benson, Bottineau, Burleigh, Dickey, Eddy and 20 more	5 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in North Dakota, 1999 Tornado Watches in Montana, 1999 Every 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.