Alert archive / North Dakota / Tornado Warnings in 2004

Tornado Warning 22, NWS Grand Forks, ND

May 19, 2004Cass County, North Dakota; Clay County, Minnesota

NWS Grand Forks, ND issued this tornado warning at May 19, 2004, 7:50 PM CDT for Cass County, North Dakota; Clay County, Minnesota. It was in force for 40 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: May 19, 2004, 7:50 PM CDT (00:50 UTC)
Expired: May 19, 2004, 8:30 PM CDT
In force: 40 min
Issued by: NWS Grand Forks, ND
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

Counties Clay County, MN, Cass County, ND

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 78 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:50 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
May 19, 3:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), launched 00:00Z, 0.8 hours before the alert went out and 245 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: 1154 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -8 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1128 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 66 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -64 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 0 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: -0.7
Supercell composite: -4.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

636 
WFUS53 KFGF 200050
TORFGF
MNC027-NDC017-200130-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS
750 PM CDT WED MAY 19 2004

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAND FORKS HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...

  WESTERN CLAY COUNTY IN NORTHWEST MINNESOTA
  EAST CENTRAL CASS COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST NORTH DAKOTA

* UNTIL 830 PM CDT.

* AT 745 PM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WITH STRONG ROTATION 2 MILES NORTHEAST OF
  DURBIN...OR ABOUT 15 MILES WEST OF FARGO...MOVING TO THE EAST AT 30
  MPH.

* THE TORNADO WILL BE NEAR...

  PROSPER AT 755 PM...
  WEST FARGO AT 800 PM...
  FARGO AT 805 PM AND
  MOORHEAD AT 810 PM.

THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM. IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO
ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE HOMES FOR A STURDY BUILDING.

LAT...LON 4691 9723 4674 9715 4672 9658 4707 9666

$$

VOELKER/04

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 19, 7:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FGF	Cass	44 min
May 19, 7:15 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FGF	Walsh	60 min
May 19, 7:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Grand Forks	56 min
May 19, 8:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Grand Forks	61 min
May 19, 7:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FGF	Marshall	59 min
May 19, 7:44 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FGF	Kittson	46 min
May 19, 7:56 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FGF	Marshall	64 min
May 19, 8:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Red Lake	60 min
May 19, 9:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Pennington, Red Lake	47 min
May 19, 10:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF	Beltrami	42 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in North Dakota, 2004 Tornado Warnings in Minnesota, 2004 Every tornado warning in 2004 Tornadoes in 2004

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.