Alert archive / Colorado / Mesoscale Discussions in 2004

Mesoscale Discussion 786

May 20, 200415 counties in Colorado

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at May 20, 2004, 9:04 PM MDT for 15 counties in Colorado. It was in force for 86 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 20, 2004, 9:04 PM MDT (03:04 UTC)
Expired: May 20, 2004, 10:30 PM MDT
In force: 86 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

Counties Adams County, CO, Arapahoe County, CO, Boulder County, CO, Broomfield County, CO, Denver County, CO, Douglas County, CO, El Paso County, CO, Elbert County, CO, Jefferson County, CO, Lincoln County, CO, Logan County, CO, Morgan County, CO, Teller County, CO, Washington County, CO, Weld County, CO

The radar

The Denver radar (KFTG), 37 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 03:05 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

Denver, CO (KDNR), launched 00:00Z, 3.1 hours before the alert went out and 79 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: 1364 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -5 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 2205 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 60 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 128 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 230 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 6.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

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SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 20, 6:15 PM MDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and 9 more	5 hr
May 20, 9:03 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Phillips, Yuma	87 min
May 20, 9:30 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Phillips, Sedgwick, Yuma	6 hr

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Colorado, 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.