Alert archive / Iowa / Tornado Watches in 2004

Tornado Watch 254

May 22, 200431 counties in Illinois; 53 counties in Iowa

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 22, 2004, 6:15 PM CDT for 31 counties in Illinois; 53 counties in Iowa. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 22, 2004, 6:15 PM CDT (23:15 UTC)
Expired: May 23, 2004, 12:00 AM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 84 counties

Adair County, IA, Adams County, IA, Appanoose County, IA, Audubon County, IA, Benton County, IA, Boone County, IA, Calhoun County, IA, Carroll County, IA, Cass County, IA, Cedar County, IA, Clarke County, IA, Clinton County, IA, Dallas County, IA, Davis County, IA, Decatur County, IA, Des Moines County, IA, Greene County, IA, Guthrie County, IA, Hamilton County, IA, Hardin County, IA, Henry County, IA, Iowa County, IA, Jackson County, IA, Jasper County, IA, Jefferson County, IA, Johnson County, IA, Jones County, IA, Keokuk County, IA, Linn County, IA, Louisa County, IA, Lucas County, IA, Madison County, IA, Mahaska County, IA, Marion County, IA, Marshall County, IA, Monroe County, IA, Montgomery County, IA, Muscatine County, IA, Page County, IA, Polk County, IA, Poweshiek County, IA, Ringgold County, IA, Sac County, IA, Scott County, IA, Story County, IA, Tama County, IA, Taylor County, IA, Union County, IA, Van Buren County, IA, Wapello County, IA, Warren County, IA, Washington County, IA, Wayne County, IA, Boone County, IL, Bureau County, IL, Carroll County, IL, DeKalb County, IL, DuPage County, IL, Grundy County, IL, Henderson County, IL, Henry County, IL, Iroquois County, IL, Jo Daviess County, IL, Kane County, IL, Kankakee County, IL, Kendall County, IL, Knox County, IL, LaSalle County, IL, Lee County, IL, Livingston County, IL, Marshall County, IL, McHenry County, IL, Mercer County, IL, Ogle County, IL, Peoria County, IL, Putnam County, IL, Rock Island County, IL, Stark County, IL, Stephenson County, IL, Warren County, IL, Whiteside County, IL, Will County, IL, Winnebago County, IL, Woodford County, IL

The radar

The Des Moines radar (KDMX), 121 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:15 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

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 22, 6:23 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LOT	Grundy, Will	37 min
May 22, 6:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Adair	25 min
May 22, 6:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Carroll	50 min
May 22, 6:41 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Boone	34 min
May 22, 6:51 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Carroll	39 min
May 22, 6:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Story	50 min
May 22, 7:00 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Adair	30 min
May 22, 7:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Adair	29 min
May 22, 7:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Audubon	26 min
May 22, 7:06 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Polk, Story	54 min
May 22, 7:10 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Dallas, Guthrie	50 min
May 22, 7:13 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	DMX	Boone, Story	92 min
May 22, 7:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Audubon	31 min
May 22, 7:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Greene, Guthrie	46 min
May 22, 7:23 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Madison	37 min
May 22, 7:31 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Guthrie	44 min
May 22, 7:49 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Jasper, Marshall	56 min
May 22, 7:51 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Dallas	39 min
May 22, 7:57 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Story	33 min
May 22, 8:18 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Polk	57 min
May 22, 8:21 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	DMX	Audubon, Boone, Carroll, Dallas, Greene, Guthrie and 4 more	16 hr
May 22, 8:29 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Dallas	16 min
May 22, 8:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Dallas, Guthrie	44 min
May 22, 8:41 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Tama	49 min
May 22, 8:43 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Marshall	47 min
May 22, 9:09 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Polk, Story	36 min
May 22, 9:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Dallas	31 min
May 22, 9:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Audubon	44 min
May 22, 9:27 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Marshall, Tama	63 min
May 22, 9:31 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	DMX	Tama	15 hr
May 22, 10:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Cass	45 min
May 22, 10:02 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OAX	Fremont, Page	58 min
May 22, 10:15 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	DVN	Benton, Buchanan, Delaware, Dubuque, Jones, Linn	10 hr
May 22, 10:21 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Benton	39 min
May 22, 10:23 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Polk, Story	52 min
May 22, 10:24 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Adair	36 min
May 22, 10:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OAX	Montgomery	42 min
May 22, 10:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Cass	29 min
May 22, 10:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Adams, Taylor	57 min
May 22, 10:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OAX	Montgomery	23 min
May 22, 10:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Carroll, Jo Daviess	50 min
May 22, 10:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Guthrie	50 min
May 22, 10:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Adair	48 min
May 22, 11:06 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Benton	39 min
May 22, 11:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Madison, Ringgold, Union	51 min
May 22, 11:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Dallas	55 min
May 22, 11:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Clarke, Decatur	44 min
May 22, 11:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Polk, Warren	54 min
May 22, 11:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OAX	Fremont, Page	54 min
May 22, 11:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DVN	Jo Daviess	50 min
May 22, 11:54 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Warren	36 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, 11.3 hours before the alert went out and 344 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: 1886 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 56 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -293 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -132 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 222313
SEL4  
SPC WW 222315
IAZ000-ILZ000-230500-

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 254
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
615 PM CDT SAT MAY 22 2004

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

       SOUTHERN IOWA
       NORTHERN ILLINOIS

EFFECTIVE THIS SATURDAY NIGHT FROM 615 PM UNTIL MIDNIGHT CDT.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 3 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 NORTH AND
SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 80 MILES WEST OF DES MOINES IOWA TO 45 MILES
EAST NORTHEAST OF MARSEILLES ILLINOIS.

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 248...WW 249...WW 250...WW
251...WW 252...WW 253...

DISCUSSION...E/W BOUNDARY WITH A VERY UNSTABLE AIRMASS AVAILABLE FOR
RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERE STORMS.  SHEAR PROFILES  SUPPORT
SUPERCELLS AND TORNADOES ALONG WITH VERY LARGE HAIL.

AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 3 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND
GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 600.
MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 24030.


...HALES

422,0951 422,0875 404,0875 403,0951

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 21, 7:37 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Boone, Bureau, Carroll, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy and 19 more	83 min
May 22, 12:05 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Boone, Bureau, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage and 22 more	6 hr
May 22, 2:41 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Boone, Bureau, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage and 23 more	94 min
May 22, 6:58 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Brown, Cass, Fulton, Hancock, Henderson and 13 more	62 min
May 22, 11:03 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	DeWitt, Ford, Grundy, Iroquois, Kankakee, LaSalle and 9 more	57 min
May 22, 11:35 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Champaign, Cook, DeWitt, Douglas, Ford, Grundy and 10 more	6 hr
May 22, 5:52 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bureau, Carroll, DeKalb, Grundy, Henry, Jo Daviess and 12 more	113 min
May 21, 9:55 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Audubon, Boone, Buena Vista, Calhoun, Carroll, Cherokee and 14 more	4 hr
May 22, 12:25 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Audubon, Boone, Buena Vista, Calhoun, Carroll, Cherokee and 14 more	2 hr
May 22, 12:55 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Adair, Adams, Audubon, Boone, Carroll, Cass and 17 more	5 hr
May 22, 3:44 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Adams, Audubon, Boone, Cass, Dallas and 11 more	61 min
May 22, 3:02 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Adams, Appanoose, Audubon, Cass, Clarke and 29 more	58 min
May 22, 3:45 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Pottawattamie, Shelby	7 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Iowa, 2004 Tornado Watches in Illinois, 2004 Every tornado watch 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.