Alert archive / Texas / Flash Flood Warnings in 2001

Flash Flood Warning 3, NWS Amarillo, TX

May 3, 2001Gray County, Wheeler County, Texas

NWS Amarillo, TX issued this flash flood warning at May 3, 2001, 11:17 PM CDT for Gray County, Wheeler County, Texas. It was in force for 4 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: May 3, 2001, 11:17 PM CDT (04:17 UTC)
Expired: May 4, 2001, 3:00 AM CDT
In force: 4 hr
Issued by: NWS Amarillo, TX
Area: Whole counties; the outline is the Mesonet’s reconstruction

Counties Gray County, TX, Wheeler County, TX

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 98 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 04:20 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, 4.3 hours before the alert went out and 98 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: 20 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -196 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 513 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 0 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 0 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.

000 
WGUS54 KAMA 040422
FFWAMA
TXC179-483-040800-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
1117 PM CDT THU MAY 3 2001

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A

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

* UNTIL 300 AM CDT

* AT 1117 PM CDT...WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED VERY HEAVY        
  RAINFALL WAS OCCURRING ACROSS MOST OF GRAY AND WHEELER             
  COUNTIES. DOPPLER RADAR ESTIMATED 2 TO 2.5 INCHES IN THE SHAMROCK  
  AND MCLEAN COMMUNITIES. THE AREA OF HEAVY RAIN WAS NEARLY          
  STATIONARY AND WILL RESULT IN RAINFALL RATES OF 1 TO 2 INCHES FOR  
  THE NEXT SEVERAL HOURS.   

* SOME LOCATIONS AFFECTED INCLUDE...
  WHEELER...TWITTY...SHAMROCK...PAMPA...NEW MOBEETIE...MCLEAN...
  LELA...LEFORS...LAKE MCCLELLAN...KELLERVILLE...BRISCOE...ALLISON
  AND ALANREED

DO NOT DRIVE ACROSS FLOODED ROADWAYS. MOST FLASH FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR 
IN AUTOMIBILES. REMEMBER...BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT SINCE IT 
IS HARDER TO RECOGNIZE THE DANGERS OF FLASH FLOODING.

LAT...LON 3521 10104 3520 10004 3561 10004 3560 10103

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 May 3, 4:05 PM CDT, 7 hours 12 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 3, 4:05 PM CDT, 7 hours 12 minutes before

TEXAS/OKLAHOMA PANHANDLES FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
405 PM CDT THU MAY 3 2001

UPR LVL LOW ROTATING OVER SRN UT THIS AFTN WITH LITTLE MVMT EXPECTD
DURING THE NEXT 18 TO 24 HRS. DOWNSTREAM SHORTWAVE RIDGING UNDERWAY
OVER THE SRN PLAINS. STATIONARY FRONT EXTENDS FROM JUST EAST OF
BEAVER SWWD TO NEAR CLAUDE TO SOUTH OF MULESHOE. WITH RIGHT-MVG
SUPERCELL TRACKING EAST JUST S OF CWA. DRYLINE FAR SW OF TX PNHDL IN
XTRM SERN NM AND FAR W TX.

NOW THAT AVN HAS CAUGHT UP WITH ETA WRT TO LOW LVL FEATURES...HAVE
BASED MUCH OF THIS FCST PACKAGE ON AVN. ETA CONTINUES TO BE TOO
PROGRESSIVE WITH MVT OF GREAT BASIN UPR LOW WHILE NGM IS TOO FAR
NORTH WITH LOW LEVEL FEATURES. WIDESPREAD SHRA/TSRA ON TAP FOR
TONIGHT AS WARM MOIST AIR ADV PATTERN AND UPR LVL DIFFLUENCE
STRENGTHENS. STATIONARY FRONT WILL GRADUALLY LIFT BACK NORTH AS A
WARM FRONT DURING THE OVERNIGHT HOURS. IN FACT...LOCALLY HVY RAIN A
REAL POSSIBILITY DUE TO TRAINING OF CELLS...PARTICULARLY ALONG AND
NEAR WARM FRONT.

MORE ACTIVE WX WILL BE POSSIBLE FRI AFTN AND FRI NIGHT AS UPR LVL
LOW BEGINS TO LIFT NE TOWARDS THE CNTRL PLAINS AND MAIN ENERGY
ROTATES NE ACROSS THE PNHDLS. CONVECTION LIKELY TO INITIATE ALONG
THE DRYLINE LATE FRI AFTN ACROSS ERN NM. STORMS EXPECTED MOVE EAST
AND EVOLVE INTO A SQUALL LINE. DESPITE LOW LVL DRY AIR ADVECTING
ACROSS THE AREA ON SAT...DECIDED TO RETAIN LOW CHANCE POPS AS STEEP
LAPSE RATES AND WRAP AROUND MID LEVEL MOISTURE WILL BE FAVORABLE FOR
VIRGA TYPE CONVECTION.

WENT AHEAD AND INTRODUCED A SLIGHT CHANCE OF POPS IN FOR SUN AND
MON DUE TO WEAK IMPULSE MOVG SE IN NWRLY FLOW AND INTERACTING WITH
NEXT COLD FRONT TO PUSH ACROSS THE AREA. DRY FOR WED AND THU.

.AMA...
TX...NONE.
OK...NONE.

JH

In the hours before

Local storm report, May 3, 10:04 PM CDT, 1 hour 13 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
1004 PM CDT THU MAY 3 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0901 PM    CLARENDON                 TX   FLASH FLOODS
05/03/01   DONLEY                         2 TO 3 FEET OF WATER
                                          COVERING US HWY 287 AND HWY
                                          70 IN CLARENDON..

Local storm report, May 3, 10:07 PM CDT, 1 hour 10 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
1007 PM CDT THU MAY 3 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0901 PM    CLARENDON                 TX   FLASH FLOODS
05/03/01   DONLEY                         2 TO 3 FEET OF WATER
                                          COVERING US HWY 287 AND HWY
                                          70 IN CLARENDONc.

JW/LG

Local storm report, May 3, 10:17 PM CDT, 1 hour before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
1017 PM CDT THU MAY 3 2001

TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE	...EVENT/REMARKS...
	  ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0901 PM   CLARENDON                 TX  FLASH FLOODS
05/03/01  DONLEY                        2 TO 3 FEET OF WATER
                                        COVERING US HWY 287 AND HWY
                                        70 IN CLARENDON.

JW/LG

l

Local storm report, May 3, 10:41 PM CDT, 36 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX
1041 PM CDT THU MAY 3 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0901 PM    CLARENDON                 TX   FLASH FLOODS
05/03/01   DONLEY                         2 TO 3 FEET OF WATER
                                          COVERING US HWY 287 AND HWY
                                          70 IN CLARENDON.

1030 PM    CLARENDON                 TX   FLASH FLOODS
05/03/01   DONLEY                         VEHICLES HAVE BEEN WASHED
                                          AWAY AND RESCUES HAVE BEEN
                                          MADEB. US HWY 287 AND HWY 70
                                          ARE SHUT DOWN.

JW

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 3, 7:46 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	AMA	Donley	3 hr
May 3, 10:40 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	AMA	Armstrong, Donley	4 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Texas, 2001 Every flash flood warning in 2001

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.