Alert archive / Colorado / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2003
Severe Thunderstorm Watch 869
The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at Aug 18, 2003, 1:55 PM MDT for 31 counties in Colorado. It was in force for 5 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Aug 18, 2003, 1:55 PM MDT (19:55 UTC)
- Expired
- Aug 18, 2003, 7:00 PM MDT
- In force
- 5 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
All 31 counties
Adams County, CO, Arapahoe County, CO, Bent County, CO, Boulder County, CO, Broomfield County, CO, Cheyenne County, CO, Crowley County, CO, Custer County, CO, Denver County, CO, Douglas County, CO, El Paso County, CO, Elbert County, CO, Fremont County, CO, Gilpin County, CO, Huerfano County, CO, Jefferson County, CO, Kiowa County, CO, Kit Carson County, CO, Larimer County, CO, Lincoln County, CO, Logan County, CO, Morgan County, CO, Otero County, CO, Phillips County, CO, Prowers County, CO, Pueblo County, CO, Sedgwick County, CO, Teller County, CO, Washington County, CO, Weld County, CO, Yuma County, CO
The radar
The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 58 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:57 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.
Warnings issued inside it
3 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 18, 3:43 PM MDT | Tornado Warning | BOU | Arapahoe | 32 min |
| Aug 18, 4:24 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BOU | Washington | 36 min |
| Aug 18, 6:06 PM MDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD | Yuma | 54 min |
Discussions around it
SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.
The nearest sounding before it
Denver, CO (KDNR), launched 12:00Z, 7.9 hours before the alert went out and 131 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -132 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1390 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -33 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 30 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.0
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 18, 1:40 PM MDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Adams, Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Denver, Elbert, El Paso and 7 more | 2 hr |
| Aug 18, 5:13 PM MDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Cheyenne, Kit Carson | 2 hr |
Nearby
Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Colorado, 2003Every severe thunderstorm watch 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.