Alert archive / Ohio / Tornado Watches in 2008

Tornado Watch 398

May 31, 200830 counties in Ohio

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 31, 2008, 1:07 AM EDT for 30 counties in Ohio. It was in force for 3 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 31, 2008, 1:07 AM EDT (05:07 UTC)
Expired: May 31, 2008, 4:13 AM EDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 30 counties

Auglaize County, OH, Brown County, OH, Butler County, OH, Champaign County, OH, Clark County, OH, Clermont County, OH, Clinton County, OH, Darke County, OH, Delaware County, OH, Fairfield County, OH, Fayette County, OH, Franklin County, OH, Greene County, OH, Hamilton County, OH, Hardin County, OH, Highland County, OH, Hocking County, OH, Licking County, OH, Logan County, OH, Madison County, OH, Mercer County, OH, Miami County, OH, Montgomery County, OH, Pickaway County, OH, Pike County, OH, Preble County, OH, Ross County, OH, Shelby County, OH, Union County, OH, Warren County, OH

The radar

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 52 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 05:10 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: 30%
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: 10%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 5%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 50%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 31, 1:08 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILN	Miami, Montgomery	37 min
May 31, 1:19 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILN	Butler, Preble	26 min
May 31, 1:25 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILN	Clark, Greene	35 min
May 31, 1:43 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILN	Clinton, Greene, Montgomery, Warren	62 min
May 31, 1:46 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILN	Butler	44 min
May 31, 3:28 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILN	Auglaize, Champaign, Logan, Shelby, Union	47 min
May 31, 4:00 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILN	Madison, Union	30 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

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), launched 00:00Z, 5.1 hours before the alert went out and 51 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: 279 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -31 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1362 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 102 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 167 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.1
Supercell composite: 1.7

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 30, 10:16 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Butler, Darke, Mercer, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and 2 more	29 min
May 31, 12:35 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Darke, Preble	55 min
May 31, 12:56 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allen, Auglaize, Butler, Champaign, Clark, Clinton and 27 more	34 min
May 31, 2:56 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ashland, Athens, Auglaize, Belmont, Butler, Carroll and 58 more	94 min
May 31, 4:10 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Ashland, Belmont, Carroll, Champaign, Clark, Columbiana and 30 more	6 hr
May 31, 7:27 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Belmont, Guernsey, Harrison, Jefferson, Monroe, Noble	2 hr
May 31, 10:20 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe and 5 more	7 hr
May 31, 4:28 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Athens, Belmont, Gallia, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs and 5 more	62 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Ohio, 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.