Alert archive / Montana / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 2001

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 229, NWS Billings, MT

July 22, 2001Carter County, Montana

NWS Billings, MT issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jul 22, 2001, 8:38 PM MDT for Carter County, Montana. It was in force for 67 min. 1 report came from inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued
Jul 22, 2001, 8:38 PM MDT (02:38 UTC)
Expired
Jul 22, 2001, 9:45 PM MDT
In force
67 min
Issued by
NWS Billings, MT
Area
Whole counties

County Carter County, MT

The radar

The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 205 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:42 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

TimeReportWhereRemark
Jul 22, 8:50 PM MDTHail 0.88Alzada, MT

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.

IssuedProductOfficeLasted
Jul 22, 3:00 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPC6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 00:00Z, 2.6 hours before the alert went out and 327 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-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Bismarck Municip, ND at 00:00Z on 2001-07-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 1437 joules per kilogram.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Bismarck Municip, ND at 00:00Z on 2001-07-23The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 11 square meters per square second.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
1437 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1385 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
70 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
2.6

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

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 Billings, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Jul 22, 1:58 PM MDT, 6 hours 40 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 22, 1:58 PM MDT, 6 hours 40 minutes before
SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST MONTANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
158 PM MDT SUN JUL 22 2001

.MON AND TUE...
BOTH AVN AND ETA SEEMED TO ALIGN RATHER WELL ACCORDING TO THE
WATER VAPOR IMAGERY AT 18Z. ETA DID BETTER WITH THE SURFACE FEATURES AT
THAT TIME.

CONVECTION IS ALREADY FIRING UP OVER SOUTH CENTRAL MONTANA. CAPES IN
AREA ABOUT 1000 J/KG. SOME DIRECTIONAL SHEAR AT LOW LEVELS...BUT WINDS
ABOVE 500 MB LEVEL SOUTHWEST AT 50 KTS OR HIGHER ACCORDING TO AN
AIRCRAFT SOUNDING AT BILLINGS TAKEN SHORTLY AFTER 18Z. GOOD SPEED SHEAR
GOING ON THERE. SEE NO REASON NOT TO MENTION THE POSSIBILITY OF SEVERE
THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE COUNTY WARNING AREA TONIGHT. THE LATEST MESO-
SCALE DISCUSSION FROM THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER SUPPORTS THIS AS
WELL.

BOTH MODELS HAVE THE THETA E RIDGE BASICALLY STRADDLING SOUTHERN
MONTANA AND NORTHERN WYOMING AT THE OUTSET. WITH TIME THE RIDGE SINKS
INTO WYOMING. ETA PLACES THE MAXIMUM THETA E INTO NORTHEAST WYOMING
AND WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA MONDAY MORNING...WHILE AVN PLACES THIS MORE
OVER NORTH CENTRAL WYOMING. BOTH MODELS...IN ESSENCE...DO NOT HAVE THE
THETA E RIDGE THAT FAR AWAY FROM THE COUNTY WARNING AREA. MOREOVER...
THE UPPER LEVEL TROUGH...WHILE GETTING CLOSER...DOES NOT PASS OVER THE
COUNTY WARNING AREA. THUS...WILL STILL KEEP POPS FOR THUNDERSTORMS FOR
ALL PERIODS.

HIGH TEMPERATURES MAY BE SOMEWHAT TRICKY DUE TO CLOUD DEBRIS FROM
THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY. CHB

.WED...THU...FRI...SAT...SUN...
MODELS SIMILAR IN  PLACEMENT ACROSS WESTERN NORTH AMERICA BUT DIFFER
IN  TIMING OF TRANSIENT WAVES AND STRENGTH OF THESE WAVES. A GENERAL
WESTERLY FLOW DEVELOPS ACROSS THE  AREA BY  MIDWEEK TRANSITIONING TO
A GENERAL DRY PATTERN WITH ISOLATED  THUNDERSTORMS BY THE END OF THE
WEEK CONTINUING INTO THE WEEKEND. MODELS DEPICT A COLD FRONT TO MOVE
THROUGH THE NORTHERN ROCKIES LATE  INTO THE WEEKEND.  WENT WITH SOME
SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS WEDNESDAY  AND THURSDAY WHEN  THE ATMOSPHERE
TRANSITIONS TO THE WESTERLY FLOW WITH GENERALLY DRY CONDITIONS AFTER
THAT.  TEMPERATURES WILL BE NEAR NORMAL  THROUGH THE EXTENDED PERIOD
BEFORE COOLING OFF EARLY IN THE WEEK NEXT WEEK. THORICHT

    MON     TUE     WED     THU     FRI     SAT     SUN
-----------------------------------------------------------
BIL 056/083 055/084 058/086 058/087 057/085 056/085 055/080
    44/T    33/T    33/T    33/T    22/B    22/B    22/B
LVM 048/080 048/081 057/087 058/086 058/085 057/084 055/081
    44/T    33/T    33/T    33/T    22/B    22/B    22/B
HDN 053/087 052/088 056/088 057/089 056/086 055/087 053/082
    44/T    33/T    33/T    33/T    22/B    22/B    22/B
MLS 058/087 055/088 060/090 059/090 059/088 058/086 057/082
    33/T    33/T    33/T    33/T    22/B    22/B    22/B
4BQ 058/086 054/087 059/090 058/089 058/087 057/085 056/081
    44/T    43/T    33/T    33/T    22/B    22/B    22/B
BHK 056/082 051/083 057/089 057/088 057/086 057/086 056/081
    33/T    33/T    33/T    33/T    22/B    22/B    22/B
SHR 055/083 053/082 058/088 057/087 056/085 056/084 056/080
    44/T    43/T    33/T    33/T    22/B    22/B    22/B

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jul 22, 7:45 PM MDT, 53 minutes before
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Local storm report, Jul 22, 7:50 PM MDT, 48 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
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The office that day

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

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Jul 23, 5:03 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZGolden Valley, Musselshell57 min
Jul 23, 5:04 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZBig Horn56 min
Jul 23, 5:59 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZMusselshell61 min
Jul 22, 6:00 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZSheridan90 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Montana, 2001Every severe thunderstorm 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; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.