Alert archive / Kansas / Tornado Watches in 2008
Tornado Watch 344
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 23, 2008, 8:48 PM CDT for 49 counties in Kansas; 14 counties in Nebraska. It was in force for 6 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 23, 2008, 8:48 PM CDT (01:48 UTC)
- Expired
- May 24, 2008, 3:09 AM CDT
- In force
- 6 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Particularly dangerous situation
- Yes
- Largest hail expected
- 3 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 70 kt
All 63 counties
Barber County, KS, Barton County, KS, Clark County, KS, Clay County, KS, Cloud County, KS, Comanche County, KS, Decatur County, KS, Dickinson County, KS, Edwards County, KS, Ellis County, KS, Ellsworth County, KS, Finney County, KS, Ford County, KS, Gove County, KS, Graham County, KS, Gray County, KS, Harper County, KS, Harvey County, KS, Hodgeman County, KS, Jewell County, KS, Kingman County, KS, Kiowa County, KS, Lane County, KS, Lincoln County, KS, McPherson County, KS, Meade County, KS, Mitchell County, KS, Ness County, KS, Norton County, KS, Osborne County, KS, Ottawa County, KS, Pawnee County, KS, Phillips County, KS, Pratt County, KS, Rawlins County, KS, Reno County, KS, Republic County, KS, Rice County, KS, Rooks County, KS, Rush County, KS, Russell County, KS, Saline County, KS, Sedgwick County, KS, Sheridan County, KS, Smith County, KS, Stafford County, KS, Sumner County, KS, Trego County, KS, Washington County, KS, Adams County, NE, Clay County, NE, Fillmore County, NE, Franklin County, NE, Furnas County, NE, Gosper County, NE, Harlan County, NE, Hitchcock County, NE, Kearney County, NE, Nuckolls County, NE, Phelps County, NE, Red Willow County, NE, Thayer County, NE, Webster County, NE
The radar
The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 154 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:49 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
- 70%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 50%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 70%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 50%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 70%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 50%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 95%
Warnings issued inside it
40 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 23, 8:50 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Ellis, Ness, Trego | 55 min |
| May 23, 8:54 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Clark, Edwards, Finney, Ford, Gray, Hodgeman and 6 more | 66 min |
| May 23, 9:07 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Barber, Comanche | 38 min |
| May 23, 9:20 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Edwards, Pawnee, Pratt, Stafford | 55 min |
| May 23, 9:23 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Barber, Clark, Comanche, Kiowa | 37 min |
| May 23, 9:28 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | GID | Rooks | 47 min |
| May 23, 9:28 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD | Decatur | 26 min |
| May 23, 9:36 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Osborne, Phillips, Rooks, Smith | 39 min |
| May 23, 9:39 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Barber, Pratt | 51 min |
| May 23, 9:55 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Clark | 50 min |
| May 23, 9:59 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | GID | Osborne, Phillips, Rooks, Smith | 46 min |
| May 23, 10:01 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Comanche, Kiowa | 44 min |
| May 23, 10:06 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Barber, Pratt | 39 min |
| May 23, 10:09 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Pawnee, Stafford | 22 min |
| May 23, 10:20 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Osborne, Smith | 40 min |
| May 23, 10:20 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ICT | Barton, Rice | 26 min |
| May 23, 10:21 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Clark, Comanche, Ford, Kiowa | 54 min |
| May 23, 10:25 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Edwards, Ford, Hodgeman, Pawnee | 50 min |
| May 23, 10:30 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | GID | Osborne, Smith | 35 min |
| May 23, 10:32 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Osborne, Phillips, Rooks | 28 min |
| May 23, 10:38 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Pratt, Stafford | 32 min |
| May 23, 10:38 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Smith | 37 min |
| May 23, 10:43 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Edwards, Kiowa, Pawnee, Pratt, Stafford | 47 min |
| May 23, 10:51 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ICT | Kingman, Reno | 54 min |
| May 23, 11:04 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Edwards, Pawnee, Rush, Stafford | 17 min |
| May 23, 11:10 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Barber, Comanche | 65 min |
| May 23, 11:30 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | DDC | Pratt, Stafford | 30 min |
| May 23, 11:42 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ICT | Reno | 33 min |
| May 23, 11:48 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Pratt | 27 min |
| May 23, 11:52 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | DDC | Barber | 38 min |
| May 24, 12:13 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Harvey, McPherson, Reno, Rice, Sedgwick | 62 min |
| May 24, 12:22 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Harper, Kingman | 53 min |
| May 24, 12:43 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TOP | Cloud | 27 min |
| May 24, 12:54 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Harper, Kingman, Reno, Sedgwick, Sumner | 66 min |
| May 24, 12:58 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TOP | Republic, Washington | 39 min |
| May 24, 1:03 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Butler, Harvey, McPherson, Marion | 57 min |
| May 24, 1:28 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Butler, Sedgwick | 62 min |
| May 24, 1:40 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Butler, Cowley, Sedgwick, Sumner | 39 min |
| May 24, 1:42 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TOP | Dickinson, Geary, Morris | 48 min |
| May 24, 2:42 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Cowley, Sumner | 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
Dodge City, (KDDC), launched 00:00Z, 1.8 hours before the alert went out and 159 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2314 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -20 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1449 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 70 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 198 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 371 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.2
- Supercell composite
- 14.8
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 23, 8:17 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Barber, Barton, Butler, Chase, Chautauqua, Cheyenne and 65 more | 58 min |
| May 23, 10:33 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Barber, Barton, Clark, Clay, Cloud, Comanche and 38 more | 57 min |
| May 24, 1:03 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Butler, Chase, Elk, Geary, Greenwood, Lyon and 4 more | 87 min |
| May 24, 1:16 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Allen, Anderson, Butler, Chase, Chautauqua, Coffey and 17 more | 4 hr |
| May 24, 4:02 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Franklin, Linn, Miami | 58 min |
| May 24, 3:35 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Barber, Barton, Comanche, Edwards, Ellis, Ellsworth and 18 more | 85 min |
| May 24, 6:33 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Jewell, Osborne, Republic, Washington | 117 min |
| May 23, 7:07 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Arthur, Banner, Box Butte, Chase, Cheyenne, Dawes and 13 more | 5 hr |
| May 23, 11:14 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Arthur, Dawson, Frontier, Garden, Grant, Hayes and 6 more | 61 min |
| May 24, 1:18 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Keya Paha | 57 min |
| May 24, 2:17 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Adams, Antelope, Boone, Boyd, Buffalo, Butler and 27 more | 118 min |
| May 24, 3:08 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Adams, Antelope, Boone, Boyd, Brown, Buffalo and 45 more | 6 hr |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in Kansas, 2008Tornado Watches in Nebraska, 2008Every 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.