Alert archive / Iowa / Tornado Warnings in 2003

Tornado Warning 36, NWS Quad Cities, IA

July 9, 2003Henry County, Iowa

NWS Quad Cities, IA issued this tornado warning at Jul 9, 2003, 8:59 PM CDT for Henry County, Iowa. It was in force for 31 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: Jul 9, 2003, 8:59 PM CDT (01:59 UTC)
Expired: Jul 9, 2003, 9:30 PM CDT
In force: 31 min
Issued by: NWS Quad Cities, IA
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County Henry County, IA

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 100 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:01 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
Jul 9, 3:15 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr
Jul 9, 8:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Davenport, (KDVN), launched 00:00Z, 2.0 hours before the alert went out and 105 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: 1258 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -58 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 757 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 154 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 228 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.9
Supercell composite: 5.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
WFUS53 KDVN 100159
TORDVN
IAC087-100230-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
859 PM CDT WED JUL 9 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN THE QUAD CITIES HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  EASTERN HENRY COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST IOWA

* UNTIL 930 PM CDT

* AT 856 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WITH A POSSIBLE TORNADO 3 MILES SOUTH OF
  SWEDESBURG...OR 7 MILES NORTH OF MOUNT PLEASANT...MOVING SOUTHEAST
  AT 35 MPH.

* THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR...
   MOUNT UNION BY 905 PM CDT.
  5 MILES NORTHEAST OF NEW LONDON BY 915 PM CDT.

NIGHTTIME TORNADOES ARE ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS BECAUSE THEY ARE
DIFFICULT TO SEE. TAKE COVER NOW

REPORT ANY SEVERE WEATHER TO THE NEAREST LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY FOR
RELAY TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN THE QUAD CITIES.

LAT...LON 4112 9157 4102 9160 4085 9138 4110 9138

$$

SF

The office that day

Everything else NWS Quad Cities, IA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 9, 7:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Van Buren	48 min
Jul 9, 7:18 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	DVN	Van Buren	6 hr
Jul 9, 7:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Keokuk	52 min
Jul 9, 8:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Jefferson	34 min
Jul 9, 8:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Henry	48 min
Jul 9, 8:45 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	DVN	Lee	6 hr
Jul 9, 9:07 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DVN	Des Moines	38 min
Jul 9, 9:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Lee	38 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Iowa, 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.