Alert archive / Texas / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 2001

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 64, NWS Houston/Galveston, TX

May 6, 2001Polk County, Texas

NWS Houston/Galveston, TX issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 6, 2001, 9:43 PM CDT for Polk County, Texas. It was in force for 47 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: May 6, 2001, 9:43 PM CDT (02:43 UTC)
Expired: May 6, 2001, 10:30 PM CDT
In force: 47 min
Issued by: NWS Houston/Galveston, TX
Area: Whole counties; the outline is the Mesonet’s reconstruction

County Polk County, TX

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 149 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:46 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

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), launched 00:00Z, 2.7 hours before the alert went out and 173 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: 1111 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 777 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -10 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: -0.2
Supercell composite: -1.3

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 Houston/Galveston, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at May 6, 8:20 PM CDT, 1 hour 23 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 6, 8:20 PM CDT, 1 hour 23 minutes before

SOUTHEAST TEXAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
820 PM CDT SUN MAY 6 2001

LN OF STG TO SVR TSTMS ENTERING NRN ZONES ATTM. WILL UP POPS N AND
CTRL FIRST PERIOD. SHD SEE A LULL IN THE ACTION TMRW MORNING AND
EARLY AFTN. ANOTHER ROUND PSBL TMRW AFTN AND EVENING ALG SFC FNTL
BOUNDARY.

NO CHG TO REST OF PKG. BROAD H5 TROF WILL GRADUALLY MOVE E...LEAVING
AREA IN A WEAK NW FLOW BY 60 HRS...CONTG INTO THE WEEKEND. ISOLD TO
SCT CONVECTION PSBL DIURNALLY REST OF WEEK.

REST OF FCST LEFT ALONE BEYOND FIRST PERIOD.

.HGX...NONE.

PRELIMS...
CLL EE 066/084 066/082 062 834
IAH EE 068/084 067/082 063 734
GLS EE 073/081 071/079 070 4433

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 6, 6:47 PM CDT, 2 hours 56 minutes before

TXZ163-164-176>179-195>200-210>213-227-070600-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
647 PM CDT SUN MAY 6 2001

...TORNADO WATCH IN EFFECT FOR INLAND PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS
UNTIL 100 AM TONIGHT...

THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WATCH UNTIL 100 AM
TONIGHT FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN SOUTHEAST TEXAS...

AUSTIN...BRAZOS...BURLESON...COLORADO...FORT BEND...GRIMES...
HARRIS...HOUSTON...MADISON...MONTGOMERY...POLK...SAN JACINTO...
TRINITY...WALKER...WALLER...AND WASHINGTON. THE TORNADO WATCH
INCLUDES METRO HOUSTON.

THE ATMOSPHERE THIS EVENING IS VERY UNSTABLE. THIS MEANS THAT THE
AIRMASS NEAR THE SURFACE IS WARM AND MOIST...WHILE COOLER DRIER
CONDITIONS EXIST ALOFT. THIS COMBINED WITH AN UPPER LEVEL
DISTURBANCE CROSSING THE AREA COULD LEAD TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS AND
ISOLATED TORNADOES OVER THE AREA.

BE ALERT FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WINDS...AND
POSSIBLY A TORNADO IN ANY THUNDERSTORMS TONIGHT. THE RISK FOR SEVERE
WEATHER WILL BEGIN NEAR 800 PM IN THE EXTREME NORTH PART OF THE
REGION...SPOTS SUCH AS COLLEGE STATION...MADISONVILLE AND CROCKETT...
WHILE AREAS FURTHER SOUTH SUCH AS CLEVELAND...METRO HOUSTON AND
COLUMBUS WOULD LIKELY NOT EXPERIENCE SEVERE WEATHER UNTIL LATE THIS
EVENING.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO AND LOCAL MEDIA FOR THE LATEST
UPDATES. REMEMBER...THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE IN A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM
OR A TORNADO IS THE LOWEST FLOOR OF A REINFORCED BUILDING...AWAY
FROM WINDOWS.

END/46

The office that day

Everything else NWS Houston/Galveston, TX issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 6, 7:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Houston	41 min
May 6, 8:23 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Houston, Madison	52 min
May 6, 9:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Montgomery, San Jacinto, Walker	47 min
May 6, 10:05 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Burleson, Washington	40 min
May 7, 6:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HGX	Wharton	41 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Texas, 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.