Alert archive / Montana / Tornado Warnings in 2001

Tornado Warning 10, NWS Billings, MT

June 30, 2001Rosebud County, Montana

NWS Billings, MT issued this tornado warning at Jun 30, 2001, 12:41 AM MDT for Rosebud County, Montana. It was in force for 34 min. 3 reports 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: Jun 30, 2001, 12:41 AM MDT (06:41 UTC)
Expired: Jun 30, 2001, 1:15 AM MDT
In force: 34 min
Issued by: NWS Billings, MT
Area: Whole counties

County Rosebud County, MT

The radar

The Billings radar (KBLX), 151 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 06:41 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

Time	Report	Where	Remark
Jun 30, 12:55 AM MDT	Hail 1	Ashland, MT
Jun 30, 1:00 AM MDT	Hail 1.75	Ashland, MT	Hail covered the ground. Several broken windows.
Jun 30, 1:05 AM MDT	Hail 2.5	Ashland, MT	Baseball size hail covered the ground on the north side of town. Multiple windows broken and some structural damage. A large thunderstorm moved over the town of Ashland, Montana at about 1 a.m. on the morning of June 30th. The storm reached a height more tha

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.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Jun 29, 11:00 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Glasgow Intl Airport, MT (KGGW), launched 00:00Z, 6.7 hours before the alert went out and 221 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: 94 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -9 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 2438 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 58 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 173 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 
WFUS55 KBYZ 300641
TORBIL
MTC087-300715-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
1241 AM MDT SAT JUN 30 2001

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BILLINGS HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  SOUTHEASTERN ROSEBUD COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST MONTANA

* UNTIL 115 AM MDT

* AT 1231 AM MDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  POSSIBLE TORNADO 16 MILES WEST OF ASHLAND...OR ABOUT 14 MILES SOUTH
  OF COLSTRIP...MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 20 MPH.

* THE TORNADO WILL BE NEAR...
   ASHLAND BY 110 AM MDT.

THIS TORNADO WARNING REPLACES THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING WHICH 
WAS IN EFFECT FOR ROSEBUD AND SOUTHWEST POWDER RIVER COUNTY.

$$

A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 400 AM MDT
SATURDAY MORNING FOR SOUTHEASTERN MONTANA.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this tornado 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 tornado warning went out at Jun 29, 8:46 PM MDT, 3 hours 55 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 29, 8:46 PM MDT, 3 hours 55 minutes before

SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST MONTANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
846 PM MDT FRI JUN 29 2001

.SAT AND SUN...

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH STILL CONTINUES IN THE WESTERN ZONES UNTIL
1100 PM. SUBTLE SHORTWAVE SEEN ON WATER VAPOR IMAGERY MIGHT HELP BREAK
THE CAP FOR CONVECTIVE INITIATION. SO FAR...JUST SOME WEAK CONVECTION...
WHICH COULD HELP TO ERODE THE CAP. THE NEW ETA APPEARS TO KEEP THE MAIN
ACTION NORTH OF THE MT/WY BORDER. THEREFORE WILL UPDATE THE WYOMING
ZONES TO BRING DOWN THE POPS. OTHERWISE...NO OTHER UPDATES. STROBIN

.MON...TUE...WED...THU...FRI...
MID CONTINENT RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE WILL MOVE WEST AND CENTER NEAR THE
WEST COAST BY WEDNESDAY. A CANADIAN COOL FRONT WILL MOVE INTO THE MID
SECTION OF THE U.S. BEGINNING WEDNESDAY. THIS WILL BRING THE WARMEST DAY
TO THE NORTHERN ROCKIES ON TUESDAY WITH COOLING THROUGH THE REMAINDER OF
THE WEEK. AS THE RIDGE SHIFTS WEST...SUBSIDENCE IN THE RIDGE WILL LIMIT
THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT TO MAINLY DRY CONDITIONS THROUGH THURSDAY
WITH INCREASING CHANCES OF THUNDERSTORMS FRIDAY AS A WARMER RETURN FLOW
DEVELOPS ACROSS THE AREA. GUIDANCE TEMPERATURES WERE A BIT TOO LOW FOR
TUESDAY AND WENT WITH LOCALLY DEVELOPED NUMBERS INSTEAD. THORICHT

    SAT     SUN     MON     TUE     WED     THU     FRI
-----------------------------------------------------------
BIL 063/082 062/083 058/082 056/086 057/083 056/082 054/083
    44/T    43/T    22/B    22/B    22/B    22/B    33/T
LVM 055/082 055/081 055/080 052/082 053/080 052/079 050/080
    33/T    33/T    22/B    22/B    22/B    22/B    33/T
HDN 061/083 060/085 057/084 054/088 055/085 053/084 051/084
    44/T    43/T    22/B    22/B    22/B    22/B    33/T
MLS 065/084 064/085 059/085 060/088 059/083 055/082 054/084
    33/T    64/T    22/B    22/B    22/B    22/B    33/T
4BQ 065/084 063/083 058/083 058/087 057/082 054/081 053/083
    33/T    64/T    22/B    22/B    22/B    22/B    33/T
BHK 063/084 062/083 066/081 055/085 055/081 053/080 052/081
    33/T    64/T    22/B    22/B    22/B    22/B    33/T
SHR 060/084 057/085 055/081 054/086 052/081 051/080 050/082
    33/T    43/T    22/B    22/B    22/B    22/B    33/T

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 29, 11:03 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Treasure	42 min
Jun 29, 11:16 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Custer, Powder River	44 min
Jun 29, 11:43 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Rosebud	47 min
Jun 29, 11:52 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Carter	53 min
Jun 29, 11:59 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Powder River	61 min
Jun 30, 12:03 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Custer	57 min
Jun 30, 12:23 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Powder River, Rosebud	67 min
Jun 30, 12:44 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Carter	61 min
Jun 30, 12:57 AM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	BYZ	Rosebud	2 hr
Jun 30, 12:59 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Powder River	61 min
Jun 30, 1:25 AM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	BYZ	Powder River	2 hr
Jun 30, 1:58 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Powder River	32 min
Jun 30, 3:02 AM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Powder River	58 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Montana, 2001 Every tornado warning in 2001 Tornadoes 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.