Alert archive / Iowa / Tornado Warnings in 2000
Tornado Warning 2, NWS Des Moines, IA
NWS Des Moines, IA issued this tornado warning at May 11, 2000, 6:56 PM CDT for Black Hawk County, Iowa. It was in force for 29 min. 1 report came from 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, with what was reported inside it.
The facts
- Issued
- May 11, 2000, 6:56 PM CDT (23:56 UTC)
- Expired
- May 11, 2000, 7:25 PM CDT
- In force
- 29 min
- Issued by
- NWS Des Moines, IA
- Area
- Whole counties; the outline is the Mesonet’s reconstruction
County Black Hawk County, IA
The radar
The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 141 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:55 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.
What was reported inside it
| Time | Report | Where | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 11, 7:03 PM CDT | Tornado F3 | Cedar Falls, IA | Multi-vortex, regerative tornado |
NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.
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 11, 6:45 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | 5 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Davenport, (KDVN), launched 12:00Z, 11.9 hours before the alert went out and 182 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- No buoyant parcel
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 938 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 50 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 172 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 291 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
740 WFUS53 KDMX 112357 TORDSM IAC013-120030- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA 656 PM CDT THU MAY 11 2000 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DES MOINES HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... BLACK HAWK COUNTY IN NORTHEAST IOWA * UNTIL 725 PM CDT * AT 656 PM CDT DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO 5 MILES NORTH OF CEDAR FALLS...OR ABOUT 9 MILES NORTHWEST OF WATERLOO...MOVING EAST AT 35 MPH. * SOME LOCATIONS THREATENED THROUGH 725 PM CDT... WATERLOO ELK RUN HEIGHTS DUNKERTON THIS WARNING REPLACES THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR NORTHERN BLACK HAWK COUNTY. THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE DURING A TORNADO IS IN A BASEMENT. GET UNDER A WORKBENCH OR OTHER PIECE OF STURDY FURNITURE. JOHNSON LAT...LON 4263 9256 4231 9253 4231 9209 4263 9208 JOHNSON NNNN
The office that day
Everything else NWS Des Moines, IA issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 11, 6:25 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DMX | Butler | 30 min |
| May 11, 6:48 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DMX | Butler | 17 min |
| May 11, 6:53 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DMX | Black Hawk, Bremer | 32 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Iowa, 2000Every tornado warning in 2000Tornadoes 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.