Alert archive / Kansas / Mesoscale Discussions in 2004

Mesoscale Discussion 708

May 16, 200421 counties in Kansas; 9 counties in Nebraska

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at May 16, 2004, 3:02 PM CDT for 21 counties in Kansas; 9 counties in Nebraska. It was in force for 88 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 16, 2004, 3:02 PM CDT (20:02 UTC)
Expired: May 16, 2004, 4:30 PM CDT
In force: 88 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 30 counties

Cheyenne County, KS, Decatur County, KS, Finney County, KS, Gove County, KS, Grant County, KS, Gray County, KS, Greeley County, KS, Hamilton County, KS, Haskell County, KS, Kearny County, KS, Lane County, KS, Logan County, KS, Norton County, KS, Rawlins County, KS, Scott County, KS, Sheridan County, KS, Sherman County, KS, Stanton County, KS, Thomas County, KS, Wallace County, KS, Wichita County, KS, Chase County, NE, Dundy County, NE, Frontier County, NE, Furnas County, NE, Gosper County, NE, Hayes County, NE, Hitchcock County, NE, Perkins County, NE, Red Willow County, NE

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 39 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:04 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 watches that followed

Watches SPC issued over any of the same counties within four hours of this discussion.

Tornado Watch 207May 16, 3:15 PM CDT

The nearest sounding before it

Denver, CO (KDNR), launched 12:00Z, 8.0 hours before the alert went out and 169 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: 1938 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 88 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 116 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.

365 
ACUS11 KWNS 162002
SWOMCD
SPC MCD 162002 
NEZ000-KSZ000-COZ000-162130-

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0708
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
0302 PM CDT SUN MAY 16 2004

AREAS AFFECTED...WRN KS/SWRN NEB

CONCERNING...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM POTENTIAL 

VALID 162002Z - 162130Z

SEVERE TSTM POTENTIAL APPEARS TO BE ON THE INCRS ACROSS THE CNTRL
HIGH PLAINS THIS AFTERNOON. A WATCH WILL BE ISSUED OVER THE REGION
SHORTLY.

DRYLINE HAS BECOME BETTER DEFINED LAST 2 HOURS OVER ERN CO AND WAS
MIXING EAST TOWARD WRN KS. AIRMASS AHEAD OF THE DRYLINE HAS
CONTINUED TO MOISTEN AND WARM WITH LATEST RUC POINT FCST SOUNDINGS
SUGGESTING MLCAPE AROUND 1500 J/KG...AND WEAKENING CONVECTIVE
INHIBITION. EXPECT CU FIELD SOUTH OF GLD TO DEVELOP INTO TSTMS OVER
THE NEXT HOUR OR SO WITH CONVECTION INCREASING IN INTENSITY AS
GREATER INSTABILITY IS TAPPED. DEEP LAYER SHEAR IS SUPPORTIVE OF
SUPERCELLS. RELATIVELY WEAK LINEAR FORCING WOULD FAVOR DISCRETE
CELLS WITH LARGE HAIL AND SOME TORNADO POTENTIAL.

..CARBIN.. 05/16/2004

...PLEASE SEE WWW.SPC.NOAA.GOV FOR GRAPHIC PRODUCT...

ATTN...WFO...GID...LBF...DDC...GLD...PUB...BOU...

40340211 40860178 41120027 40669960 37310045 37200181
38490226

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 16, 3:15 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Cheyenne, Clark, Decatur, Ellis, Finney, Ford and 28 more	7 hr
May 16, 6:04 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clark, Decatur, Ellis, Finney, Ford, Gove and 26 more	86 min
May 16, 6:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Clay, Cloud, Jewell, Lincoln, Marshall, Mitchell and 7 more	4 hr
May 16, 1:13 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Antelope, Boyd, Brown, Cedar, Dakota, Dixon and 12 more	2 hr
May 16, 4:45 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adams, Antelope, Boone, Boyd, Buffalo, Butler and 29 more	5 hr
May 16, 6:55 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Antelope, Boone, Boyd, Buffalo, Butler and 29 more	2 hr

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Kansas, 2004 Mesoscale Discussions in Nebraska, 2004 Every mesoscale discussion 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.