Alert archive / Texas / Flash Flood Warnings in 2003

Flash Flood Warning 21, NWS Midland/Odessa, TX

May 31, 2003Dawson County, Texas

NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued this flash flood warning at May 31, 2003, 8:59 PM CDT for Dawson County, Texas. It was in force for 3 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 31, 2003, 8:59 PM CDT (01:59 UTC)
Expired: Jun 1, 2003, 12:00 AM CDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Midland/Odessa, TX
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County Dawson County, TX

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 89 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:59 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

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), launched 00:00Z, 2.0 hours before the alert went out and 89 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: 470 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -4 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 3647 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 13 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -9 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.

000 
WGUS54 KMAF 010200
FFWMAF
TXC115-010500-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND/ODESSA TX
859 PM CDT SAT MAY 31 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MIDLAND HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  DAWSON COUNTY IN WEST TEXAS

* UNTIL MIDNIGHT CDT

* AT 859 PM CDT...WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED VERY HEAVY RAINFALL
  WAS OCCURRING ACROSS LARGE PART OF DAWSON COUNTY NORTH OF LAMESA...MOVING 
  EAST AT 20 MPH.

* SOME LOCATIONS AFFECTED INCLUDE...
  ARVANA...FRIENDSHIP...GRANDVIEW...HANCOCK...KEY...LAMESA...
  MIDWAY...PRIDE...PUNKIN CENTER...SPARENBERG...TENMILE AND THE UNION
  COMMUNITY

DO NOT DRIVE ACROSS FLOODED ROADWAYS. MOST FLASH FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR
IN AUTOMOBILES.

LAT...LON 3258 10217 3255 10179 3271 10174 3294 10171
          3295 10212

$$

1 follow-up statement

000 
WGUS74 KMAF 010432
FFSMAF
TXC115-227-010615-

FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIDLAND/ODESSA TX
1130 PM CDT SAT MAY 31 2003

...A FLASH FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR CENTRAL DAWSON AND HOWARD
COUNTIES UNTIL MIDNIGHT CDT...

AT 1130 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO 
DETECT HEAVY RAINFALL MOVING ACROSS DAWSON COUNTY...MOST RAIN HAS 
GENERALLY ENDED ACROSS HOWARD COUNTY. HEAVY RAINS ACROSS THESE 
COUNTIES RESULTED IN AREAS OF FLOODING EARLIER...AND EVEN THOUGH THE 
HEAVY RAIN ARE COMING TO AN END IT WILL STILL TAKE SEVERAL MORE 
HOURS FOR FLOOD WATERS TO SUBSIDE ACROSS DAWSON AND HOWARD COUNTIES.

TRAVELERS ARE URGED TO USE CAUTION...DO NOT DRIVE ACROSS FLOODED 
ROADWAYS AS IT HARDER TO RECOGNIZE THE DANGER OF FLASH FLOODING AT 
NIGHT. MOST FLASH FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR IN AUTOMOBILES.

LAT...LON 3294 10174 3251 10144 3251 10119 3210 10118
          3209 10168 3251 10167 3254 10148 3286 10174
          3259 10173 3261 10210 3294 10212

$$

The office that day

Everything else NWS Midland/Odessa, TX issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 31, 7:32 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Midland	3 hr
May 31, 7:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Midland	56 min
May 31, 7:54 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Martin	66 min
May 31, 8:24 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Howard	66 min
May 31, 8:37 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Dawson	53 min
May 31, 9:04 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Howard	3 hr
May 31, 9:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Dawson	60 min
Jun 1, 2:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Pecos	63 min
Jun 1, 3:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Brewster	54 min
Jun 1, 3:40 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Pecos	3 hr
Jun 1, 4:05 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	MAF	Brewster	3 hr
Jun 1, 4:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Pecos	59 min
Jun 1, 5:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Terrell	63 min
Jun 1, 5:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Gaines	58 min
Jun 1, 6:54 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Dawson, Martin	66 min

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Texas, 2003 Every flash flood warning 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.