Alert archive / Colorado / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 2002

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 6, NWS Grand Junction, CO

June 3, 2002Rio Blanco County, Colorado

NWS Grand Junction, CO issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jun 3, 2002, 4:44 PM MDT for Rio Blanco County, Colorado. It was in force for 46 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: Jun 3, 2002, 4:44 PM MDT (22:44 UTC)
Expired: Jun 3, 2002, 5:30 PM MDT
In force: 46 min
Issued by: NWS Grand Junction, CO
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County Rio Blanco County, CO

The radar

The Grand Junction radar (KGJX), 102 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:45 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

Grand Junction, CO (KGJT), launched 12:00Z, 10.7 hours before the alert went out and 98 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 2202 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 60 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 64 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 Junction, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Jun 3, 2:29 PM MDT, 2 hours 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 3, 2:29 PM MDT, 2 hours 15 minutes before

WESTERN COLORADO & EASTERN UTAH AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND JUNCTION CO
229 PM MDT MON JUN 3 2002

VORT MAX RIDING TO NE IN FLOW AHEAD OF SPLIT TROUGH OVER ERN GREAT
BASIN KICKING OFF CONVECTION. BEST UVV AND MOISTURE APPEAR TO
HAVE MOVED NE AND OUT OF THE AREA EARLIER THIS AFTERNOON AFTER
HELPING TO SPAWN ON SIGNIFICANT THUNDERSTORM OVER ROUTT COUNTY.
SOUTHERN PORTION OF SPLIT TO MOVE OVER AZ/NM TNGT AND TUE. NORTHERN
PORTION OF SPLIT TO MOVE THRU WRN CO FIRST HALF OF TUE. WITH FLOW
TURNING TO NORTHWEST AND DRYING THEREAFTER. SHORTWAVE RIDGE BUILDS
IN TUE AFTERNOON THROUGH THU WITH A WARMING TREND AND CONTINUED DRY
CONDITIONS THRU THE END OF THE WEEK.   CJC

EXTENDED (FRI-MON)...THERE REMAINS MAJOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE
MEDIUM RANGE MODELS THROUGH THIS PERIOD. FOCUSING ON MAINLY THE MRF
(AVNX) AND ECMWF...THE TRENDS DIFFER BY SATURDAY. BOTH AGREE THAT A
STRONG UPPER LOW OVER ALBERTA CANADA WILL SWING A PIECE OF ENERGY
SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST BY 12Z/SAT. THE DIFFERENCE
OCCURS WITH THE TIMING AND STRENGTH OF THIS PIECE OF ENERGY. THE
ECMWF IS SLOWER AND MORE AMPLIFIED SO THAT BY 12Z/SUN...A STRONG
CLOSED UPR LOW SITS OVER NORTHERN UTAH WITH THE CWFA WITHIN STRONG
PVA. THE MRF IS WEAKER AND MUCH MORE PROGRESSIVE...SWINGING THE
ENERGY ACROSS ID/MT THEN ACROSS THE NORTHERN PLAINS BY SUNDAY...
LEAVING OUR CWFA WITHIN WEAK NW FLOW AS THE DESERT SW RIDGE
STRENGTHENS. AT THIS TIME...WILL LEAN TOWARD MORE PROGRESSIVE MRF
GIVEN ORGIN OF TROUGH (CANADA) BUT THIS WILL HAVE TO BE CLOSELY
MONITORED AS WE APPROACH THIS WEEKEND.  DJN.83

.GJT...NONE.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jun 3, 2:56 PM MDT, 1 hour 48 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND JUNCTION, CO
256 PM MDT MON JUN 3 2002

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

0100 PM    4 N HAYDEN                CO   60 MPH TSTM WIND GUST
06/03/02   ROUTT
REPORTED BY PUBLIC

JK

Local storm report, Jun 3, 2:56 PM MDT, 1 hour 48 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND JUNCTION, CO
256 PM MDT MON JUN 3 2002

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

0100 PM    4 N HAYDEN                CO   60 MPH TSTM WIND GUST
06/03/02   ROUTT                          REPORTED BY PUBLIC

JK

The office that day

Everything else NWS Grand Junction, CO issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 3, 12:29 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GJT	Moffat, Routt	46 min
Jun 3, 3:41 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GJT	Rio Blanco	49 min
Jun 3, 4:27 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	GJT	Rio Blanco	18 min
Jun 3, 3:34 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GJT	Uintah	41 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Colorado, 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.