Alert archive / Nebraska / Tornado Watches in 2003

Tornado Watch 951

November 17, 20034 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Nov 17, 2003, 3:45 PM CST for 4 states. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Nov 17, 2003, 3:45 PM CST (21:45 UTC)
Expired: Nov 17, 2003, 9:00 PM CST
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 31 counties

Adair County, IA, Adams County, IA, Cass County, IA, Fremont County, IA, Mills County, IA, Montgomery County, IA, Page County, IA, Pottawattamie County, IA, Taylor County, IA, Brown County, KS, Clay County, KS, Cloud County, KS, Jackson County, KS, Marshall County, KS, Nemaha County, KS, Pottawatomie County, KS, Riley County, KS, Washington County, KS, Atchison County, MO, Holt County, MO, Cass County, NE, Douglas County, NE, Gage County, NE, Jefferson County, NE, Johnson County, NE, Lancaster County, NE, Nemaha County, NE, Otoe County, NE, Pawnee County, NE, Richardson County, NE, Sarpy County, NE

The radar

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 126 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:46 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

6 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Nov 17, 4:14 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OAX	Gage, Lancaster	46 min
Nov 17, 4:32 PM CST	Tornado Warning	OAX	Lancaster	28 min
Nov 17, 4:43 PM CST	Tornado Warning	OAX	Cass, Otoe	47 min
Nov 17, 5:30 PM CST	Tornado Warning	OAX	Cass	45 min
Nov 17, 5:42 PM CST	Tornado Warning	OAX	Mills	33 min
Nov 17, 6:04 PM CST	Tornado Warning	OAX	Pottawattamie	26 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

Omaha, NE (KOAX), launched 12:00Z, 9.8 hours before the alert went out and 134 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: 620 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 49 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 389 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 389 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 
WWUS20 KWNS 172143
SEL1  
SPC WW 172145
IAZ000-KSZ000-MOZ000-NEZ000-180300-

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 951 
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 
345 PM CST MON NOV 17 2003

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF 

       SOUTHWEST IOWA
       NORTHEAST KANSAS
       EXTREME NORTHWEST MISSOURI
       SOUTHEAST NEBRASKA

EFFECTIVE THIS MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 345 PM UNTIL 900
PM CST.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 2.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND
GUSTS TO 70 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE
AREAS.

THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS ALONG AND 60 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST
OF A LINE FROM 30 MILES EAST NORTHEAST OF OMAHA NEBRASKA TO 50
MILES EAST SOUTHEAST OF CONCORDIA KANSAS.

REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR
TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA.
PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THREATENING
WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE
WARNINGS.


OTHER WATCH INFORMATION...CONTINUE...WW 949...WW 950...


DISCUSSION...SMALL CLUSTER OF SEVERE STORMS IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP
IN THE NEXT 1-2 HOURS OVER SOUTHEAST NEB/NORTHEAST KS. STEEP LAPSE
RATES...COLD MID LEVEL TEMPERATURES...AND STRONG DEEP LAYER VERTICAL
SHEAR SUGGEST A RISK OF SUPERCELLS CAPABLE OF LARGE HAIL.  BACKED
LOW LEVEL WINDS AND 3KM HELICITY VALUES NEAR 300 M2/S2 ALSO INDICATE
A RISK OF BRIEF ISOLATED TORNADOES.  STORMS MAY SPREAD EASTWARD INTO
WESTERN IA AFTER DARK...WITH A CONTINUED RISK OF LARGE HAIL.

AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 2.5 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE
WIND GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO
500. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 24040.


...HART

412,0941 391,0953 391,0975 412,0963

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Nov 17, 6:42 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Adams, Boone, Clarke, Dallas, Decatur and 14 more	3 hr
Nov 17, 3:07 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Audubon, Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Mills and 5 more	113 min
Nov 17, 5:42 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Mills	93 min
Nov 17, 1:11 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barber, Clark, Comanche, Harper, Kingman, Kiowa and 4 more	3 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Nebraska, 2003 Tornado Watches in Iowa, 2003 Tornado Watches in Kansas, 2003 Every tornado 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.