Alert archive / Indiana / Tornado Watches in 2004

Tornado Watch 540

July 3, 200414 counties in Illinois; 47 counties in Indiana

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Jul 3, 2004, 12:45 PM CDT for 14 counties in Illinois; 47 counties in Indiana. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jul 3, 2004, 12:45 PM CDT (17:45 UTC)
Expired: Jul 3, 2004, 7:00 PM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 61 counties

Champaign County, IL, Clark County, IL, Coles County, IL, Crawford County, IL, Douglas County, IL, Edgar County, IL, Ford County, IL, Grundy County, IL, Iroquois County, IL, Kankakee County, IL, Lawrence County, IL, Livingston County, IL, Vermilion County, IL, Wabash County, IL, Bartholomew County, IN, Benton County, IN, Boone County, IN, Brown County, IN, Carroll County, IN, Cass County, IN, Clark County, IN, Clay County, IN, Clinton County, IN, Daviess County, IN, Fountain County, IN, Fulton County, IN, Greene County, IN, Hamilton County, IN, Hancock County, IN, Hendricks County, IN, Howard County, IN, Jackson County, IN, Jasper County, IN, Jefferson County, IN, Jennings County, IN, Johnson County, IN, Knox County, IN, Lawrence County, IN, Marion County, IN, Martin County, IN, Miami County, IN, Monroe County, IN, Montgomery County, IN, Morgan County, IN, Newton County, IN, Orange County, IN, Owen County, IN, Parke County, IN, Pulaski County, IN, Putnam County, IN, Scott County, IN, Shelby County, IN, Starke County, IN, Sullivan County, IN, Tippecanoe County, IN, Tipton County, IN, Vermillion County, IN, Vigo County, IN, Warren County, IN, Washington County, IN, White County, IN

The radar

The Indianapolis radar (KIND), 66 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:46 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

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 3, 2:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IND	Vigo	50 min
Jul 3, 2:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IND	Clay	41 min
Jul 3, 2:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IND	Daviess, Martin	53 min
Jul 3, 3:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IND	Parke	60 min
Jul 3, 3:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IND	Putnam	55 min
Jul 3, 3:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IND	Owen	44 min
Jul 3, 4:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IND	Clinton, Tippecanoe	45 min
Jul 3, 4:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IND	Boone, Hendricks, Marion	42 min
Jul 3, 5:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IWX	Cass, White	59 min
Jul 3, 5:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IND	Howard	52 min
Jul 3, 5:47 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ILX	Coles	58 min
Jul 3, 6:06 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	IND	Hamilton, Madison	54 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

Lincoln, IL (KILX), launched 12:00Z, 5.8 hours before the alert went out and 152 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: 201 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -40 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 716 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 99 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 126 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 031746
SEL0  
SPC WW 031745
ILZ000-INZ000-040000-

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 540
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
1245 PM EST SAT JUL 3 2004

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

       EASTERN ILLINOIS
       WESTERN AND CENTRAL INDIANA

EFFECTIVE THIS SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 1245 PM UNTIL
700 PM EST.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 1 INCH IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS
TO 70 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS ALONG AND 70 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST
OF A LINE FROM 65 MILES NORTH NORTHWEST OF LAFAYETTE INDIANA TO 50
MILES SOUTH OF BLOOMINGTON INDIANA.

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.

DISCUSSION...AIR MASS VERY UNSTABLE ACROSS WATCH AREA AHEAD OF
DEVELOPING STORMS CENTRAL IL. WITH FAVORABLE SHEAR PROFILES
DEVELOPING AHEAD OF SURFACE/UPPER LOW MOVING INTO NWRN
IL...POTENTIAL INCREASING FOR ISOLATED TORNADIC SUPERCELL
DEVELOPMENT.  STORMS WILL CONTINUE INCREASING NEWD ACROSS IN DURING
AFTERNOON WHERE MUCAPES AOA 3000 J/KG.

AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 1 INCH. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND
GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 550.
MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 21030.


...HALES

411,0860 382,0851 382,0875 411,0884

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 3, 11:38 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bureau, Champaign, Clark, Coles, Cook, Crawford and 38 more	2 hr
Jul 3, 2:44 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall and 1 more	2 hr
Jul 3, 6:16 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Champaign, Clark, Crawford, Edgar, Ford, Iroquois and 4 more	119 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Indiana, 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.