Alert archive / Kansas / Tornado Warnings in 1999

Tornado Warning 17, NWS Topeka, KS

May 22, 1999Ottawa County, Kansas

NWS Topeka, KS issued this tornado warning at May 22, 1999, 10:07 PM CDT for Ottawa County, Kansas. It was in force for 33 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 22, 1999, 10:07 PM CDT (03:07 UTC)
Expired: May 22, 1999, 10:40 PM CDT
In force: 33 min
Issued by: NWS Topeka, KS
Area: Whole counties

County Ottawa County, KS

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 22, 9:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Topeka, KS (KTOP), launched 00:00Z, 3.1 hours before the alert went out and 174 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: 23 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -507 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1580 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 49 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 216 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.

999 
WFUS1 KTOP 230308 RRA
TORTOP
KSC143-230345-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS
1007 PM CDT SAT MAY 22 1999

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TOPEKA HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  OTTAWA COUNTY IN NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS

* UNTIL 1040 PM CDT

* AT 1007 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WITH A POSSIBLE TORNADO NEAR ADA...OR ABOUT 27
  MILES NORTHWEST OF SALINA...MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 15 MPH.

* SOME LOCATIONS AFFECTED...
  BENNINGTON
  TESCOTT
  CULVER
  MINNEAPOLIS
  SUMMERVILLE

THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE DURING A TORNADO IS IN A BASEMENT. GET UNDER A
WORKBENCH OR OTHER PIECE OF STURDY FURNITURE. IF NO BASEMENT IS
AVAILABLE...SEEK SHELTER ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF THE BUILDING IN AN
INTERIOR HALLWAY OR ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET. USE BLANKETS OR PILLOWS TO
COVER YOUR BODY AND ALWAYS STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR LOCAL MEDIA OUTLETS FOR THE
LATEST SEVERE WEATHER INFORMATION.

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 Topeka, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before this tornado warning went out at May 22, 2:49 PM CDT, 7 hours 18 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 22, 2:49 PM CDT, 7 hours 18 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS
249 PM CDT SAT MAY 22 1999

PRECIP TONIGHT MAIN FORECAST CONCERN.

19Z SURFACE MAP SHOWED SYNOPTIC COLD FRONT PUSHING INTO NORTHWESTERN
NEBRASKA.  LOW 60S DEW POINTS WERE BEGINNING TO POOL AHEAD OF THIS
FEATURE IN WEST CENTRAL NEBRASKA...AND THUNDERSTORMS WERE FIRING IN
THIS AREA.  FARTHER SOUTH ACROSS OUR CWA...MID/HIGH LEVEL CLOUD
DEBRIS FROM EARLIER MCS WAS HOLDING TEMPS DOWN A BIT...AND A FEW
LINGERING SHOWERS WERE DISSIPATING.  HOWEVER SEVERAL BOUNDARIES HAVE
BEEN LAID DOWN FROM EARLIER CONVECTION AND COULD FOCUS REIGNITION OF
STORMS THIS EVENING.

AXIS OF BEST INSTABILITY HAS SET UP OVER WESTERN KANSAS INTO WESTERN
NEBRASKA.  MOISTURE CONVERGENCE IN NORTHWEST KS/SOUTHWEST NE WAS
BEING OVERRUN BY MID LEVEL COOL AIR/SHORT WAVE.  EXPECT CONVECTION
TO FIRE THERE SHORTLY THEN DRIFT EAST TO EAST-SOUTHEAST.  AS COLD
FRONT DROPS SOUTHEAST TONIGHT EXPECT CLUSTER OF STORMS TO
DEVELOP/MOVE EASTWARD AS FOCUS OF INSTABILITY SHIFTS EAST.  THOUGH
THERE COULD BE SOME SCATTERED CONVECTION AHEAD OF COLD
FRONT/MCS...EXPECT MAIN THRUST OF RAIN TO BE ALONG THE BOUNDARY.
CONSIDERED FLASH FLOOD/FLOOD WATCH OVER PARTS OF THE CWA BASED
ON LOW FLASH FLOOD GUIDANCE VALUES...HOWEVER WITH PROGRESSIVE
MOVEMENT OF THE SYSTEM...WILL NOT ISSUE ONE NOW.

AFTER COLD FRONT CLEARS THE CWA BY SUNDAY MORNING...SURFACE HIGH
SETTLES OVER THE PLAINS BY AFTERNOON.  CLEARING SKIES AND DRIER AIR
EXPECTED TO CONTINUE INTO MONDAY.  FWC/FAN TEMP FORECASTS ARE NOT
TOO FAR OFF AND CANT ARGUE WITH THEM AT THE MOMENT.

.TOP...NONE

62

The office that day

Everything else NWS Topeka, KS issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 22, 8:24 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Republic	31 min
May 22, 8:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Cloud	32 min
May 22, 9:37 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Ottawa	48 min
May 22, 10:16 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	TOP	Dickinson	44 min
May 22, 10:24 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Geary, Morris	46 min
May 22, 10:42 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	TOP	Morris	38 min
May 22, 11:13 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	TOP	Morris	32 min
May 22, 11:25 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	TOP	Dickinson, Geary	3 hr
May 22, 11:35 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	TOP	Ottawa	3 hr
May 22, 11:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Coffey, Lyon, Osage	30 min
May 23, 12:17 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Anderson, Coffey, Franklin	38 min
May 23, 12:17 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Osage	38 min
May 23, 12:35 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Anderson	30 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Kansas, 1999 Every tornado warning in 1999 Tornadoes 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.