Alert archive / Montana / Flash Flood Warnings in 2001

Flash Flood Warning 8, NWS Billings, MT

July 10, 2001Powder River County, Montana

NWS Billings, MT issued this flash flood warning at Jul 10, 2001, 6:58 PM MDT for Powder River County, Montana. It was in force for 2 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Jul 10, 2001, 6:58 PM MDT (00:58 UTC)
Expired: Jul 10, 2001, 9:00 PM MDT
In force: 2 hr
Issued by: NWS Billings, MT
Area: Whole counties

County Powder River County, MT

The radar

The Billings radar (KBLX), 237 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:59 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

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), launched 00:00Z, 1.0 hours before the alert went out and 262 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: 170 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -56 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1403 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -20 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 48 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: -0.0
Supercell composite: -0.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
WGUS55 KBYZ 110104
FFWBIL
MTC075-110300-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
658 PM MDT TUE JUL 10 2001

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BILLINGS HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  WEST CENTRAL POWDER RIVER COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST MONTANA

* UNTIL 900 PM MDT

* AT 658 PM MDT...DOPPLER RADAR WAS INDICATING A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM
  WITH VERY HEAVY RAIN...17 TO 25 MILES SOUTHWEST OF SONETTE...NEAR
  OTTER.  THE STORM WAS NEARLY STATIONARY.

* PUBLIC REPORTS MINOR FLOODING AND SEVERE PONDING NEAR OTTER.
  DUE TO THE SLOW MOVEMENT OF THIS SEVERE THUNDERSTORM...ADDITIONAL
  FLOODING IS EXPECTED.

* DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE 
  ROADWAY.

$$

LAT...LON 4541 10593 4518 10588 4513 10623 4530 10622

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 Billings, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Jul 10, 2:01 PM MDT, 4 hours 57 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 10, 2:01 PM MDT, 4 hours 57 minutes before

SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST MONTANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
201 PM MDT TUE JUL 10 2001

.WED AND THU...
ETA AND AVN BASICALLY PRESENT THE SAME SCENARIO WITH GREATER ENERGY
AND LIFT MOVING NORTHEAST TONIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY. AVN SEEMS TO BE MORE
AGGRESSIVE WITH THE SYSTEM AND MORE PROGRESSIVE WITH THE THETA E
RIDGE/TROUGH. AM LEANING TOWARD THE SOMEWHAT SLOWER ETA MODEL.

BEST POSSIBILITIES OF PRECIPITATION WILL OCCUR OVER THE EASTERN ZONES
TONIGHT INTO MAINLY WEDNESDAY MORNING. THE THETA E RIDGE IS
SITUATED THERE FOR BOTH MODELS. FLASH FLOOD GUIDANCE STILL GIVES HIGH
VALUES THERE AND AM NOT LOOKING TO ISSUE A WATCH AT THIS TIME.
PRECIPITABLE WATER VALUES ARE HIGHER EAST...BUT FAIRLY HIGH WEST AS
WELL. THUS...LOCALLY HEAVY RAINS COULD OCCUR THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY
WARNING AREA TONIGHT...ALTHOUGH THE GREATER POSSIBILITIES WILL
OCCUR OVER THE EAST. HIGHER LIFTED INDICES SEEM TO HAVE SHIFTED INTO
NORTHEAST MONTANA...ALTHOUGH THEY ARE STILL FAIRLY HIGH OVER THE
SOUTHEAST PART OF THE STATE. THUS THE POSSIBILITY OF SEVERE STORMS EAST
OF THE BILLINGS AREA STILL LOOKS GOOD. IN THE BILLINGS AREA...HOWEVER...
AIRCRAFT SOUNDINGS SUGGEST THUNDERSTORMS...BUT NOTHING SEVERE.

PRECIPITATION CHANCES SHOULD LESSEN ON WEDNESDAY AS THE SHORT WAVE
MOVES OUT OF THE AREA. ON THURSDAY...ANOTHER SHORT WAVE MOVES UP ON
THE MONSOONAL FLOW. THETA E VALUES INCREASE OVER THE WESTERN ZONES.
THUS INCREASING POSSIBILITIES FOR RAIN WILL OCCUR THERE WITH THE EAST
BEING DRY.

TEMPERATURES MAY BE TRICKY DEPENDING ON CLOUD COVER OR LACK OF IT.
HAVE CONSIDERED BUFKIT3 SUGGESTIONS ON HOW FAR DOWN TO MIX THE
TEMPERATURES. CHB

.FRI...SAT...SUN...MON...TUE...
EARLY PART OF THE EXTENDED PERIOD WILL FEATURE FALLING HEIGHTS AS AN
UNSEASONABLY STRONG FEATURE BEGINS TO INFLUENCE THE NORTHERN WEST
COAST. FRIDAY SHOULD BE THE LAST DAY WITH 90 DEGREE POTENTIAL FOR MOST
OF THE AREA WITH SOUTHWEST FLOW INCREASING UPPER LEVEL MOISTURE AND
CLOUDS FOR SATURDAY AND BEYOND. MAIN QUESTION IS HOW DYNAMIC WILL THE
PATTERN BECOME WITH STRONG DISTURBANCES ROTATING AROUND THE
BC/WASHINGTON COAST TROUGH. WILL GO WITH A COOLING TREND FOR SATURDAY
WITH SUNDAY THROUGH TUESDAY LOOKING BELOW NORMAL TEMPS AND ABOVE
NORMAL PRECIPITATION. CURRENT PROGS LOOK A LITTLE PESSIMISTIC WITH THE
DEPTH OF THE SYSTEM...BUT WITH SO MANY MODELS IN AGREEMENT...A VERY
UNSETTLED PERIOD FOR EARLY NEXT WEEK LOOKS LIKELY. BORSUM

    WED     THU     FRI     SAT     SUN     MON     TUE
-----------------------------------------------------------
BIL 062/086 061/091 068/093 060/090 068/086 067/085 063/080
    63/T    22/T    33/T    33/T    44/T    44/T    44/T
LVM 058/084 058/087 065/086 068/088 066/084 066/082 058/077
    42/T    23/T    33/T    33/T    44/T    44/T    44/T
HDN 059/089 058/094 066/091 068/093 065/089 065/088 065/083
    63/T    22/T    33/T    33/T    44/T    44/T    44/T
MLS 068/086 062/089 061/090 061/093 069/090 068/088 067/085
    76/T    30/B    33/T    33/T    44/T    44/T    44/T
4BQ 067/085 061/088 060/090 061/094 060/089 060/089 060/086
    76/T    30/B    33/T    33/T    44/T    44/T    44/T
BHK 065/084 060/087 068/088 069/090 068/088 066/086 066/082
    76/T    30/B    33/T    33/T    44/T    44/T    44/T
SHR 062/085 059/090 066/087 069/090 067/087 065/085 065/081
    74/T    22/T    33/T    33/T    44/T    44/T    44/T

The office that day

Everything else NWS Billings, MT issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 10, 6:45 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Powder River	60 min
Jul 10, 7:47 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Powder River	58 min
Jul 10, 8:12 PM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	BYZ	Custer	2 hr
Jul 10, 8:43 PM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	BYZ	Powder River	3 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Montana, 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.