Alert archive / North Dakota / Tornado Watches in 2000

Tornado Watch 545

July 6, 2000Carter County, Fallon County, Wibaux County, Montana; 18 counties in North Dakota; Harding County, South Dakota

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Jul 6, 2000, 3:15 PM MDT for Carter County, Fallon County, Wibaux County, Montana; 18 counties in North Dakota; Harding County, South Dakota. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jul 6, 2000, 3:15 PM MDT (21:15 UTC)
Expired: Jul 6, 2000, 8:00 PM MDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 22 counties

Carter County, MT, Fallon County, MT, Wibaux County, MT, Adams County, ND, Billings County, ND, Bowman County, ND, Burleigh County, ND, Dunn County, ND, Emmons County, ND, Golden Valley County, ND, Grant County, ND, Hettinger County, ND, McLean County, ND, Mercer County, ND, Morton County, ND, Oliver County, ND, Pierce County, ND, Sheridan County, ND, Sioux County, ND, Slope County, ND, Stark County, ND, Harding County, SD

The radar

The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 159 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:16 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.

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 6, 3:40 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Bowman	50 min
Jul 6, 4:28 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Bowman, Slope	47 min
Jul 6, 5:51 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Harding	39 min
Jul 6, 6:34 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Hettinger	41 min
Jul 6, 7:09 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Harding	21 min
Jul 6, 7:21 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Hettinger	24 min

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 12:00Z, 9.3 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 1565 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 52 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -81 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 71 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.9

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

453 
WWUS9 KMKC 062053
SEL5  
MKC WW 062045
MTZ000-NDZ000-SDZ000-070200-

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 545
STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
245 PM MDT THU JUL 6 2000

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

   SOUTHEAST AND EAST CENTRAL MONTANA                            
   SOUTHWEST AND CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA                       
   EXTREME NORTHWEST SOUTH DAKOTA                       

EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 315 PM UNTIL 800
PM MDT.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 3 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS
TO 80 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS ALONG AND 70 STATUTE MILES NORTH AND
SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 60 MILES SOUTH OF GLENDIVE MONTANA TO 55 MILES
NORTHEAST OF BISMARCK NORTH 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.

OTHER WATCH INFORMATION...  CONTINUE...WW 544...

DISCUSSION...CONVECTION IS STARTING TO DEVELOP OVER EXTREME SERN MT
IN LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE ZONE ASSOCIATED WITH SURFACE LOW.  AIR
MASS AHEAD OF THE COLD FRONT/DRY LINE HAS BECOME VERY MOIST AND
UNSTABLE WITH DEW POINTS IN THE 65-70 RANGE CONTRIBUTING TO SBCAPE
GREATER THAN 3000 J/KG. SELY LOW LEVEL WINDS VEER TO SWLY IN THE
MID LEVELS RESULTING IN STRONG DEEP LAYER SHEAR AND HELICITY OF
150-300 M2/S2...SUGGESTING POTENTIAL FOR SUPERCELLS.  ACTIVITY
SHOULD SPREAD/DEVELOP NEWD INTO ND THROUGH THE EVENING HOURS. 


AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 3 INCHES.  EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND
GUSTS TO 70 KNOTS.  A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500. 
MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 24035.


...WEISS

471,1044 482,0995 461,0995 451,1044

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 5, 6:30 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Blaine, Daniels, Dawson, Fergus, Garfield, Hill and 9 more	6 hr
Jul 5, 11:15 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Blaine, Daniels, Dawson, Garfield, McCone, Phillips and 4 more	5 hr
Jul 6, 2:45 PM MDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barnes, Cass, Eddy, Foster, Griggs, Kidder and 6 more	5 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in North Dakota, 2000 Tornado Watches in Montana, 2000 Tornado Watches in South Dakota, 2000 Every tornado watch 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.