Alert archive / Minnesota / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 2002

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 332, NWS Grand Forks, ND

August 31, 2002Clay County, Minnesota

NWS Grand Forks, ND issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Aug 31, 2002, 11:46 PM CDT for Clay County, Minnesota. It was in force for 44 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Aug 31, 2002, 11:46 PM CDT (04:46 UTC)
Expired: Sep 1, 2002, 12:30 AM CDT
In force: 44 min
Issued by: NWS Grand Forks, ND
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County Clay County, MN

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 90 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 04:50 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.

Did it verify

Not verified. The Iowa Environmental Mesonet's Cow found no qualifying storm report inside this severe thunderstorm warning while it was in force. That is not proof nothing happened: reports are thin where few people live.

Cow counts a report within 15 km of the polygon while the warning was in force: a tornado for a tornado warning; hail of 1 inch or more, a gust of 58 mph or more or wind damage for a severe thunderstorm warning; a flash flood report for a flash flood warning.

The watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Aug 31, 9:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), launched 00:00Z, 4.8 hours before the alert went out and 269 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: 3369 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -54 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1554 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 130 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 161 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.7
Supercell composite: 4.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

555 
WUUS53 KFGF 010446
SVRFAR
MNC027-010530-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS
1145 PM CDT SAT AUG 31 2002

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAND FORKS HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...

  CENTRAL CLAY COUNTY IN NORTHWEST MINNESOTA.

* UNTIL 1230 AM CDT.

* AT 1140 PM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  SEVERE THUNDERSTORM 6 MILES WEST OF DILWORTH...OR ABOUT OVER       
  FARGO...MOVEMENT WAS TO THE EAST AT 35 MPH.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR...

  MOORHEAD AT 1150 PM
  GLYNDON AT 1155 PM...
  AVERILL AT MIDNIGHT...
  MUSKODA AT 1205 AM AND
  HAWLEY AT 1210 AM.

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

A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH ALSO REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 400 AM 
SUNDAY MORNING FOR NORTHWESTERN MINNESOTA AND EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA. 

LAT...LON 4699 9674 4676 9675 4681 9618 4711 9621


06

NNNN

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 Aug 31, 8:45 PM CDT, 3 hours 1 minute earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 31, 8:45 PM CDT, 3 hours 1 minute before

FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
845 PM CDT SAT AUG 31 2002

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE CONFINED SO FAR TO EXTREME NORTHERN RED
RIVER VALLEY BUT TRAINING THUNDERSTORMS ARE APPROACHING ON SEVERAL
FRONTS AT WEST/SOUTHWEST SIDE OF CWA. BELIEVE THE AVN WAS MOST
CORRECT IN PLACEMENT OF HEAVIEST RAIN TONIGHT BUT FLOOD WATCH IN
EFFECT THROUGHOUT REGION IS STILL VALID WITH SATURATED SOILS IN
ABUNDANCE. WILL LEAVE ZONES BASICALLY ALONE BUT WILL ADD EMPHASIS
ON FLOOD POTENTIAL AS NONE WAS INCLUDED EARLIER.

.FGF...FLASH FLOOD WATCH ENTIRE CWA TONIGHT.
       SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH TIL MIDNIGHT NORTH HALF EXCEPT LAKE
       OF THE WOODS AND BELTRAMI COUNTIES.
GV

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 31, 8:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Kittson	52 min
Sep 1, 12:02 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Marshall	43 min
Sep 1, 12:20 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Polk	40 min
Sep 1, 12:24 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Pennington, Red Lake	51 min
Sep 1, 12:52 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Norman, Polk	38 min
Sep 1, 1:16 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Roseau	29 min
Sep 1, 1:50 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Beltrami	40 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Minnesota, 2002 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 2002

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.