Alert archive / North Dakota / Tornado Warnings in 2003

Tornado Warning 2, NWS Bismarck, ND

June 21, 2003McLean County, North Dakota

NWS Bismarck, ND issued this tornado warning at Jun 21, 2003, 4:26 PM CDT for McLean County, North Dakota. It was in force for 34 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: Jun 21, 2003, 4:26 PM CDT (21:26 UTC)
Expired: Jun 21, 2003, 5:00 PM CDT
In force: 34 min
Issued by: NWS Bismarck, ND
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County McLean County, ND

The radar

The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 51 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:28 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 watch it was issued in

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

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Jun 21, 2:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 12:00Z, 9.4 hours before the alert went out and 52 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: 44 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -279 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1100 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 168 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 42 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

458 
WFUS53 KBIS 212126
TORBIS
NDC055-212200-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
427 PM CDT SAT JUN 21 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BISMARCK HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  EXTREME SOUTHEASTERN MCLEAN COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA

* UNTIL 500 PM CDT

* AT 427 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  TORNADO OVER EXTREME SOUTHEASTERN MCLEAN COUNTY...OR ABOUT 28 MILES
  NORTH OF BISMARCK...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 20 MPH.

A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 900 PM CDT
SATURDAY EVENING FOR NORTH DAKOTA.

LAT...LON 4719 10095 4717 10078 4726 10078 4731 10084

$$
RSL

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 21, 3:50 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Oliver	25 min
Jun 21, 4:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	McLean, Oliver	30 min
Jun 21, 4:29 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Burleigh	46 min
Jun 21, 5:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Burleigh	49 min
Jun 21, 5:17 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	McHenry, Pierce	28 min
Jun 21, 5:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Emmons	53 min
Jun 21, 5:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Pierce	35 min
Jun 21, 6:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Wells	47 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in North Dakota, 2003 Every tornado warning in 2003 Tornadoes in 2003

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.