Alert archive / Arkansas / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 2000

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 95, NWS Memphis, TN

May 12, 2000Clay County, Greene County, Arkansas

NWS Memphis, TN issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 12, 2000, 11:17 PM CDT for Clay County, Greene County, Arkansas. It was in force for 43 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 12, 2000, 11:17 PM CDT (04:17 UTC)
Expired: May 13, 2000, 12:00 AM CDT
In force: 43 min
Issued by: NWS Memphis, TN
Area: Whole counties

Counties Clay County, AR, Greene County, AR

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 114 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 04:16 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 watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
May 12, 8:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), launched 00:00Z, 4.3 hours before the alert went out and 164 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: 2626 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -34 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 963 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 110 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 72 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.6
Supercell composite: 4.7

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

694 
WUUS54 KMEG 130419
SVRMEM
ARC021-055-130500-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEMPHIS TN
1117 PM CDT FRI MAY 12 2000

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MEMPHIS HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
  SOUTHEASTERN CLAY COUNTY IN NORTHEAST ARKANSAS
  GREENE COUNTY IN NORTHEAST ARKANSAS

* UNTIL MIDNIGHT CDT

* AT 1115 PM CDT...WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE
  THUNDERSTORM 3 MILES SOUTHEAST OF BEECH GROVE...MOVING EAST AT 40
  MPH.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR...
  MARMADUKE AROUND 1125 PM CDT
  RECTOR AROUND 1135 PM CDT

.DAMAGING WINDS...LARGE HAIL AND HEAVY RAIN ARE LIKELY WITH THIS
STORM. SEEK SHELTER IN A STURDY BUILDING AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Memphis, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at May 12, 7:37 PM CDT, 3 hours 40 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 12, 7:37 PM CDT, 3 hours 40 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEMPHIS TN
737 PM CDT FRI MAY 12 2000

COLD FRONT MOVING THROUGH NORTHWEST AR. KSRX 88D SHOWS FRONT
PRECEDED BY BROKEN LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS. SURFACE DEWPOINTS IN
THE LOWER AND MID 70S PUSHING INTO THE LOWER AND MID MS RIVER
VALLEY AHEAD OF THE FRONT. LZK 00Z SOUNDING VERY UNSTABLE WITH LI OF
-10 AND CAPE OF 4600 J/KG. HOWEVER...MAIN UPPER LEVEL SUPPORT
FORECAST TO REMAIN TO OUR NORTH.

EXTRAPOLATION WOULD PUT LEADING EDGE OF STORMS INTO OUR CWA TOWARD
MIDNIGHT. THINK INTENSITY OF STORMS MOST LIKELY WILL BE ON THE
DECREASE BY THAT TIME OR SOON AFTER WITH LOSS OF DAYTIME HEATING.
HOWEVER...WITH ATMOSPHERE SO UNSTABLE AND LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE ALONG
THE COLD FRONT...MENTION OF SEVERE STILL REASONABLE.

NO CHANGES TO ZONES ATTM.

.MEM...NONE.

N

The office that day

Everything else NWS Memphis, TN issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 12, 10:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Crittenden, Cross	47 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Arkansas, 2000 Every severe thunderstorm 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.