Alert archive / South Dakota / Tornado Watches in 2004

Tornado Watch 265

May 23, 20044 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 23, 2004, 3:00 PM MDT for 4 states. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 23, 2004, 3:00 PM MDT (21:00 UTC)
Expired: May 23, 2004, 8:00 PM MDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

Counties Carter County, MT, Powder River County, MT, Bowman County, ND, Bennett County, SD, Butte County, SD, Custer County, SD, Fall River County, SD, Harding County, SD, Lawrence County, SD, Meade County, SD, Oglala Lakota County, SD, Pennington County, SD, Crook County, WY, Weston County, WY

The radar

The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 122 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:04 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.

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 23, 4:29 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BYZ	Powder River	61 min
May 23, 4:44 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Custer	46 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

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), launched 12:00Z, 9.0 hours before the alert went out and 124 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: 525 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 30 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 94 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 232058
SEL5  
SPC WW 232100
MTZ000-SDZ000-WYZ000-240200-

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 265
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
300 PM MDT SUN MAY 23 2004

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

       SOUTHEAST MONTANA
       WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA
       NORTHEAST WYOMING

EFFECTIVE THIS SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 300 PM UNTIL 800
PM MDT.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS
TO 70 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS ALONG AND 80 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST
OF A LINE FROM 55 MILES NORTH NORTHEAST OF BROADUS MONTANA TO 65
MILES SOUTH OF RAPID CITY SOUTH DAKOTA.

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 261...WW 262...WW 263...WW
264...

DISCUSSION...ISOLATED SEVERE/SUPERCELL STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO
INTENSIFY DURING THE NEXT 1-2 HOURS AS UPPER TROUGH ROTATES
EASTWARD.  COLD TEMPERATURES ALOFT AND STRONG DEEP LAYER SHEAR WILL
SUPPORT LARGE HAIL IN STRONGER CELLS.  SUFFICIENT LOW LEVEL SHEAR
AND LOW LCL HEIGHTS ALSO SUGGEST A RISK OF ISOLATED TORNADOES.

AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 2 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND
GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500.
MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 24035.


...HART

460,1031 430,1012 430,1043 460,1063

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 23, 2:09 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Carter, Custer, Powder River, Rosebud	2 hr
May 23, 5:50 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Carter, Powder River	85 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in South Dakota, 2004 Tornado Watches in Montana, 2004 Tornado Watches in Wyoming, 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.