Alert archive / North Dakota / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 2001

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 180, NWS Grand Forks, ND

July 20, 2001Steele County, North Dakota

NWS Grand Forks, ND issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jul 20, 2001, 1:47 AM CDT for Steele County, North Dakota. It was in force for 43 min. 1 report came from 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, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued: Jul 20, 2001, 1:47 AM CDT (06:47 UTC)
Expired: Jul 20, 2001, 2:30 AM CDT
In force: 43 min
Issued by: NWS Grand Forks, ND
Area: Whole counties; the outline is the Mesonet’s reconstruction

County Steele County, ND

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 38 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 06:50 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
Jul 20, 2:00 AM CDT	Thunderstorm Wind	Finley, ND	Trees were blown down.

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
Jul 19, 11:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 00:00Z, 6.8 hours before the alert went out and 231 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: 2229 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -107 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1611 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 61 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 84 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.2
Supercell composite: 5.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
WUUS53 KFGF 200648
SVRFAR

NDC091-200730-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND-GRAND FORKS
147 AM CDT FRI JUL 20 2001

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAND FORKS HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...

  STEELE COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST NORTH DAKOTA.

* UNTIL 230 AM CDT.

* AT 145 AM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  SEVERE THUNDERSTORM 11 MILES SOUTHWEST OF FINLEY...OR ABOUT 35
  MILES NORTH OF VALLEY CITY...MOVEMENT WAS TO THE NORTHEAST AT 20
  MPH.

* WINDS TO 60 MPH IS POSSIBLE WITH THIS STORM.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR...

  BLABON AT 200 AM CDT...
  FINLEY AT 210 AM CDT AND
  SHARON AT 215 AM CDT.

REMEMBER SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY DO PRODUCE
TORNADOES WITH LITTLE OR NO ADVANCE WARNING.

A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 500 AM CDT FRIDAY
MORNING FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA.

LAT...LON 4760 9796 4731 9797 4730 9778 4735 9750
          4767 9780


$$
BRAZZELL/RIDDLE

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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 Grand Forks, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Jul 19, 8:40 PM CDT, 5 hours 7 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 19, 8:40 PM CDT, 5 hours 7 minutes before

FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
840 PM CDT THU JUL 19 2001

CONCERNS TONIGHT CENTER ON OVERNIGHT CONVECTION.

00Z MAP SHOWS WARM FRONT OVER FAR NRN SD WITH DEW PTS IN THE UPPER
70S IN ERN SD.  SEVERAL SUPERCELLS IN SD ALONG THIS WARM FRONT FROM
NORTH OF RAPID CITY TO NR ABERDEEN.  RUC ANALYSIS SHOWS 85H WARM
ADVECTION AND 85H MOISTURE CONVERGENCE CENTERING OVER FAR SE MT/SW
ND/NW SD AT 01Z..AND THIS AREA WILL BE THE FOCUS FOR ORGANIZING
CONVECTION THE NEXT FEW HOURS.  85H JET SHIFTS EAST OVERNIGHT AND
SHOULD FUEL DEVELOPING MCS OVER WRN/CNTRL ND BY 06Z.  THIS WILL
TRACK AND AFFECT MUCH OF THE CWFA OVERNIGHT.  18Z MESO ETA/AVN
ACTUALLY FAIRLY CLOSE IN SHOWING MAX QPF NR BIS AT 06Z AND THEN OVR
ECNTRL ND AT 12Z.  FEEL MCS TRACK MAY TRACK A BIT FURTHER SOUTH THAN
EARLIER THOUGHT CLOSER TO SFC WARM FRONT.  45KT 50H FLOW SUGGEST
POTENTIAL FOR BOW ECHO WIND EVENTS AS WELL AS SUPERCELLS NORTH OF
THE WARM FRONT AS GOOD DIRECTION SHEAR WILL EXIST.

CURRENT FFA LOOKS GOOD WITH NRN ZONES HAVING LOWEST GUIDANCES...BLO
1.5 INCH/1-HR.  HOWEVER...WILL ADJUST THE FFA A BIT FARTHER SOUTH TO
INCLUDE TRAILL...STEELE...GRIGGS...AND BARNES AS THIS AREA HAS HAD
HEAVY RAINS FROM RECENT EVENTS AS WELL AND TRACK OF MCS MAY PUT THEM
IN HEAVY RAIN AS WELL.

.FGF...FLASH FLOOD WATCH OVERNIGHT ALONG AND NORTH OF A VALLEY CITY
TO HILLSBORO TO BEMIDJI LINE.

RIDDLE

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Jul 19, 9:29 PM CDT, 4 hours 18 minutes before

MNZ001>009-013>017-022>024-027>032-040-NDZ006>008-014>016-024-
026>030-038-039-049-052>054-200830-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
929 PM CDT THU JUL 19 2001

...SEVERE WEATHER IS LIKELY OVER PARTS OF EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND
NORTHWEST MINNESOTA OVERNIGHT...

SYNOPSIS...THUNDERSTORMS WILL ORGANIZE OVER WESTERN AND CENTRAL
NORTH DAKOTA THIS EVENING...AND THEN MOVE INTO EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA
AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA AFTER MIDNIGHT.  THIS COMPLEX OF
THUNDERSTORMS MAY EVOLVE IN INTO A BOW ECHO AND PRODUCE STRONG
STRAIGHTLINE WINDS AND POSSIBLE TORNADOES.  HEAVY RAIN WILL ALSO BE
LIKELY.

AREA OF CONCERN...RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER FOR ALL OF EASTERN NORTH
DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA.

TIME...START AFTER 11 PM AND THEN CONTINUE UNTIL 6 AM FRIDAY
MORNING.

TYPE OF HAZARD...LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. HEAVY RAIN ALSO
LIKELY.

RID7DLE

Local storm report, Jul 19, 11:31 PM CDT, 2 hours 16 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA/GRAND FORKS
1131 PM CDT THU JUL 19 2001

...LATE STORM REPORTS...

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

0730 PM    2 S ST THOMAS             ND   .75 INCH HAIL
07/18/01   PEMBINA

0730 PM    5 NW GRAFTON              ND   .75 INCH HAIL
07/18/01   WALSH

0745 PM    3 NW CRYSTAL              ND   .75 INCH HAIL
07/18/01   PEMBINA

0800 PM    2 NW HALMA                MN   WIND DAMAGE
07/18/01   KITTSON                        1 BIG PINE TREE DOWN, 3
                                          INCH DIAMATER BRANCHES
                                          DOWN

0815 PM    8 NE MINTO                ND   WIND DAMAGE
07/18/01   WALSH                          NUMEROUS 2 INCH DIAMETER
                                          BRANCHES DOWN

0930 PM    URBANA                    ND   .75 INCH HAIL
07/18/01   BARNES

0930 PM    JELLE                     MN   WIND DAMAGE
07/18/01   BELTRAMI                       2 INCH DIAMETER BRANCHES
                                          DOWN

0945 PM    20 S BAUDETTE             MN   WIND DAMAGE
07/18/01   LAKE OF THE WOODS              TREES DOWN

0945 PM    20 S BAUDETTE             MN   1 INCH HAIL
07/18/01   LAKE OF THE WOODS

1000 PM    11 SSE BAUDETTE           MN   WIND DAMAGE
07/18/01   LAKE OF THE WOODS              2 INCH DIAMETER BRANCHES
                                          DOWN

1045 PM    ANGUS                     MN   WIND DAMAGE
07/18/01   POLK                           3 INCH DIAMETER BRANCHES
                                          DOWN

1115 PM    14 SW THIEF RIVER FALLS   MN   1 INCH HAIL
07/18/01   PENNINGTON

1130 PM    3 NW RED LAKE FALLS       MN   2 INCH HAIL
07/18/01   RED LAKE

0145 AM    2 SE GREENVIEW            MN   .75 INCH HAIL
07/19/01   POLK

0200 AM    SYRE                      MN   .75 INCH HAIL
07/19/01   NORMAN

NNNN

The office that day

Everything else NWS Grand Forks, ND issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 20, 12:44 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Eddy, Griggs	61 min
Jul 20, 12:44 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Benson	61 min
Jul 20, 1:14 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Barnes	46 min
Jul 20, 1:31 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Nelson, Ramsey	44 min
Jul 20, 2:02 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Cass, Ransom	43 min
Jul 20, 4:54 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Richland	66 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in North Dakota, 2001 Every 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.