Alert archive / Colorado / Tornado Watches in 2007

Tornado Watch 305

May 29, 200710 counties in Colorado

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 29, 2007, 5:08 PM MDT for 10 counties in Colorado. It was in force for 4 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 29, 2007, 5:08 PM MDT (23:08 UTC)
Expired: May 29, 2007, 9:14 PM MDT
In force: 4 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

Counties Baca County, CO, Bent County, CO, Cheyenne County, CO, Crowley County, CO, Huerfano County, CO, Kiowa County, CO, Las Animas County, CO, Otero County, CO, Prowers County, CO, Pueblo County, CO

The radar

The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 34 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:10 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.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 40%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 30%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 30%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 40%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 30%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 70%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 29, 5:24 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PUB	Pueblo	66 min
May 29, 5:29 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	PUB	Pueblo	48 min
May 29, 5:41 PM MDT	Flash Flood Warning	PUB	Pueblo	3 hr
May 29, 5:50 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PUB	Kiowa	55 min
May 29, 6:15 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PUB	Pueblo	50 min
May 29, 7:27 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PUB	Crowley, Otero	39 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

Denver, CO (KDNR), launched 12:00Z, 11.1 hours before the alert went out and 167 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: 18 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -196 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1497 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -86 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -23 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000
WWUS20 KWNS 292307
SEL5  
SPC WW 292307
COZ000-300500-

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 305
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
505 PM MDT TUE MAY 29 2007

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

       SOUTHEAST COLORADO

EFFECTIVE THIS TUESDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 505 PM UNTIL
1100 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 APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 85 STATUTE
MILES NORTH AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 25 MILES WEST SOUTHWEST OF
PUEBLO COLORADO TO 35 MILES EAST NORTHEAST OF LAMAR COLORADO. 
FOR A COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE ASSOCIATED WATCH
OUTLINE UPDATE (WOUS64 KWNS WOU5).

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 304...

DISCUSSION...LARGE MCS IS INTENSIFYING OVER EAST CENTRAL CO AND IS
EXPECTED TO PROPAGATE EAST-SOUTHEASTWARD THROUGH THE EVENING.  OTHER
MORE ISOLATED CELLS ARE FORMING ALONG THE FOOTHILLS OF SOUTH CENTRAL
CO AND WILL ALSO MOVE SLOWLY EASTWARD THIS EVENING.  SUPERCELLS
AHEAD OF PRIMARY MCS WILL HAVE A RISK OF VERY LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING
WINDS...AND ISOLATED TORNADOES.  STORMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MCS WILL
HAVE PRIMARILY AND DAMAGING WIND AND HAIL THREAT.

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 27030.


...HART

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 29, 12:12 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Arapahoe, Bent, Broomfield, Cheyenne, Crowley and 16 more	93 min
May 29, 12:29 PM MDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, El Paso and 9 more	8 hr
May 29, 2:52 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Arapahoe, Bent, Broomfield, Cheyenne, Crowley and 16 more	53 min
May 29, 4:34 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cheyenne, El Paso, Kit Carson, Lincoln, Yuma	3 hr
May 29, 5:40 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baca, Bent, Cheyenne, Crowley, Huerfano, Kiowa and 7 more	95 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Colorado, 2007 Every tornado watch in 2007

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.