Alert archive / Texas / Flash Flood Warnings in 2000

Flash Flood Warning 15, NWS Amarillo, TX

October 24, 2000Wheeler County, Texas

NWS Amarillo, TX issued this flash flood warning at Oct 24, 2000, 7:55 PM CDT for Wheeler 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: Oct 24, 2000, 7:55 PM CDT (00:55 UTC)
Expired: Oct 24, 2000, 11:00 PM CDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Amarillo, TX
Area: Whole counties; the outline is the Mesonet’s reconstruction

County Wheeler County, TX

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 128 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:56 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

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), launched 00:00Z, 0.9 hours before the alert went out and 127 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: 76 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -113 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1016 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 52 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 73 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 140 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 1.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
WGUS54 KAMA 250056
FFWAMA
TXC483-250400-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
755 PM CDT TUE OCT 24 2000

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN AMARILLO HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  WHEELER COUNTY IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE

* UNTIL 1100 PM CDT

* AT 748 PM CDT...WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED THUNDERSTORMS
  PRODUCING VERY HEAVY RAINFALL OVER A LARGE PORTION OF WHEELER COUNTY.
  RADAR ESTIMATES THAT ONE TO THREE INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN IN THE PAST
  HOUR FROM ALLISON AND BRISCOE...TO WHEELER...TO WEST OF LELA. 
  MORE THUNDERSTORMS ARE MOVING NORTHEAST AT 20 MPH...TOWARD WHEELER
  COUNTY.

* SOME LOCATIONS AFFECTED INCLUDE...
  WHEELER...TWITTY...SHAMROCK...LELA...KELLERVILLE...
  BRISCOE AND ALLISON

DO NOT DRIVE ACROSS FLOODED ROADWAYS. MOST FLASH FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR
IN AUTOMIBILES.

BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER TO RECOGNIZE FLOOD
DANGERS. DO NOT DRIVE INTO FLOODED AREAS.

LAT...LON 3562 10053 3519 10053 3520 10002 3562 10003

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 Amarillo, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Oct 24, 3:02 PM CDT, 4 hours 53 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 24, 3:02 PM CDT, 4 hours 53 minutes before

TEXAS/OKLAHOMA PANHANDLES FORECAST DISCUSSION...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
302 PM CDT TUE OCT 24 2000

MORE HEAVY RAINFALL AND POSSIBLE FLASH FLOODING TONIGHT ACRS PORTIONS
OF THE PNHDLS. LATEST SFC ANLYS SHOWED TROUGH EXTENDING NORTH TO
SOUTH NEAR THE NEW MEXICO STATE LINE.  ALOFT...UPR LOW SPINNING OVER
SRN UTAH.  FCST CALLS FOR THE UPR LOW TO OPEN AND MOVE EAST OVER THE
NEXT 24 HOURS AS UPSTREAM KICKER SLIDES SWD DOWN THE WEST COAST.  FOR
TNGT...RIGHT ENTRANCE REGION OF JET ASSOC WITH THE SYSTEM WILL CREATE
FAVORABLE UVM OVER THE PNHDLS...SCPLY THE EASTERN ZONES.  EASTERN
ZONES WILL ALSO CONT TO SEE DEEP MSTR WITH PWS ABV AN INCH WHILE PWS
IN THE WEST EXPECTED TO FALL TO BLO A HALF INCH.  SO WITH BEST LIFT
AND BEST MSTR IN THE EAST...WILL CARRY THE HIGHEST POPS THERE.  SOME
AREAS ON THE EASTERN ZONES RECEIVED HEAVY RAINFALL YDA AND LAST NIGHT
(OVER 4 INCHES IN OCHILTREE COUNTY) SO ANY ADDITIONAL HEAVY RNFL WILL
CREATE PROBLEMS. DECIDED TO ISSUE A FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR THE ERN TX
PNHDL. ORIGINAL THOUGHT WAS TO KEEP THE WATCH EAST OF AMA BUT
SINCE WSR-88D SHOWS A SGFNT BAND OF RAIN TAKING AIM ON THE FLOOD
PRONE PALO DURO CANYON...DECIDED TO INCLUDE RANDALL AND POTTER
COUNTIES.

EXPECT WEST TO EAST CLEARING ON WED AS SYSTEM AND ASSOC VORT MOVES
ACRS THE AREA.  DRY CONDITIONS THEN EXPECTED WED NIGHT AND THU AS
SHRTWV RIDGE BUILDS OVER THE REGION.

MEDIUM RANGE MDLS DOING A MUCH BETTER JOB WITH THE NEXT SYSTEM OFF
THE WEST COAST. EXPECT THIS LOW TO MOVE ACRS THE SW U.S. FRI THEN
OVER THE PNHDLS SAT.

.AMA...
TX...FLASH FLOOD WATCH TONIGHT FOR ZONES 4-5-8>10-12>15-17>20.
OK...FLASH FLOOD WATCH TONIGHT FOR Z(ONES 3.

SP

The office that day

Everything else NWS Amarillo, TX issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 24, 11:05 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	AMA	Hemphill, Wheeler	3 hr
Oct 25, 1:55 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	AMA	Hemphill, Lipscomb, Wheeler	3 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Texas, 2000 Every flash flood warning in 2000

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.