Alert archive / Texas / Tornado Watches in 2008

Tornado Watch 267

May 6, 2008Curry County, Lea County, Roosevelt County, New Mexico; 21 counties in Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 6, 2008, 2:26 PM MDT for Curry County, Lea County, Roosevelt County, New Mexico; 21 counties in Texas. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 6, 2008, 2:26 PM MDT (20:26 UTC)
Expired: May 6, 2008, 9:00 PM MDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 3 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 24 counties

Curry County, NM, Lea County, NM, Roosevelt County, NM, Andrews County, TX, Bailey County, TX, Castro County, TX, Cochran County, TX, Crane County, TX, Dawson County, TX, Ector County, TX, Gaines County, TX, Hockley County, TX, Lamb County, TX, Loving County, TX, Martin County, TX, Midland County, TX, Parmer County, TX, Pecos County, TX, Reeves County, TX, Terry County, TX, Upton County, TX, Ward County, TX, Winkler County, TX, Yoakum County, TX

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 86 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:29 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: 70%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 60%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 6, 3:22 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Andrews, Gaines	53 min
May 6, 3:43 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Crane, Pecos, Reeves, Ward	62 min
May 6, 3:57 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Ector	48 min
May 6, 4:06 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Andrews, Gaines	54 min
May 6, 4:10 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Brewster, Pecos	35 min
May 6, 4:14 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Crane, Pecos	31 min
May 6, 4:19 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Brewster, Pecos, Terrell	26 min
May 6, 4:40 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Crane, Upton	65 min
May 6, 4:42 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Lynn, Terry	33 min
May 6, 4:45 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Bailey, Lamb	45 min
May 6, 4:49 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Crane, Upton	26 min
May 6, 4:55 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Pecos	35 min
May 6, 4:57 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Gaines	33 min
May 6, 5:01 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Castro, Lamb	44 min
May 6, 5:16 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Terry	29 min
May 6, 5:16 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	MAF	Upton	29 min
May 6, 5:22 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Crane, Ector	27 min
May 6, 5:26 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Pecos	22 min
May 6, 5:32 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Terry	28 min
May 6, 5:39 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Reeves, Ward	36 min
May 6, 5:42 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Hockley, Lubbock	48 min
May 6, 5:51 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Castro, Hale, Lamb, Swisher	54 min
May 6, 6:02 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Hockley, Terry	43 min
May 6, 6:16 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Eddy, Lea	59 min
May 6, 6:16 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Hockley	29 min
May 6, 6:24 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Hockley, Lubbock	21 min
May 6, 6:50 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Castro, Hale, Lamb	10 min
May 6, 7:01 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Castro, Hale, Lamb, Swisher	29 min
May 6, 7:11 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Lea	64 min
May 6, 7:19 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Yoakum	56 min
May 6, 7:43 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Lea	32 min
May 6, 7:51 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LUB	Terry, Yoakum	25 min
May 6, 8:14 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Lea	50 min
May 6, 8:29 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MAF	Lea	31 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

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), launched 12:00Z, 8.4 hours before the alert went out and 85 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: 1418 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -38 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 655 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 47 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 221 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 324 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 2.2
Supercell composite: 9.8

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 5, 6:59 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Chaves, Curry, De Baca, Quay, Roosevelt	61 min
May 5, 7:32 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Eddy, Lea, Roosevelt	5 hr
May 5, 9:56 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Eddy, Lea, Roosevelt	64 min
May 6, 12:27 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Curry, Eddy, Lea, Roosevelt	3 hr
May 6, 5:01 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Lea	89 min
May 6, 5:19 PM MDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Armstrong, Borden, Briscoe, Carson, Childress, Coke and 45 more	4 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Texas, 2008 Tornado Watches in New Mexico, 2008 Every tornado watch in 2008

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.