Alert archive / Missouri / Tornado Watches in 2008

Tornado Watch 408

May 31, 2008Bourbon County, Cherokee County, Crawford County, Kansas; 20 counties in Missouri

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 31, 2008, 9:00 PM CDT for Bourbon County, Cherokee County, Crawford County, Kansas; 20 counties in Missouri. It was in force for 4 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 31, 2008, 9:00 PM CDT (02:00 UTC)
Expired: Jun 1, 2008, 1:06 AM CDT
In force: 4 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 23 counties

Bourbon County, KS, Cherokee County, KS, Crawford County, KS, Barry County, MO, Barton County, MO, Cedar County, MO, Christian County, MO, Dade County, MO, Dallas County, MO, Douglas County, MO, Greene County, MO, Jasper County, MO, Laclede County, MO, Lawrence County, MO, McDonald County, MO, Newton County, MO, Ozark County, MO, Polk County, MO, Stone County, MO, Taney County, MO, Vernon County, MO, Webster County, MO, Wright County, MO

The radar

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 51 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:03 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: 40%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 30%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 80%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 60%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 31, 9:15 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	SGF	Crawford	45 min
May 31, 9:58 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	SGF	Barton	47 min
May 31, 10:06 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Crawford	39 min
May 31, 10:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Cedar, St. Clair, Vernon	62 min
May 31, 10:21 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	SGF	Bourbon, Crawford	6 hr
May 31, 10:21 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Crawford	54 min
May 31, 10:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Hickory, Polk	49 min
May 31, 10:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Bourbon	33 min
May 31, 10:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Dallas, Polk	68 min
May 31, 11:06 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Barton	33 min
May 31, 11:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Crawford	28 min
May 31, 11:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Vernon	57 min
Jun 1, 12:00 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Cedar, St. Clair	60 min
Jun 1, 12:12 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Vernon	63 min
Jun 1, 12:24 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Dallas, Greene, Webster	66 min
Jun 1, 12:52 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Bourbon	53 min
Jun 1, 12:56 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SGF	Douglas, Webster, Wright	64 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

Springfield, MO (KSGF), launched 00:00Z, 2.0 hours before the alert went out and 48 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: 16 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -289 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1712 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 48 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 85 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 330 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 31, 7:43 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cherokee, Crawford	32 min
May 31, 11:22 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cowley, Crawford, Elk, Harper and 5 more	53 min
Jun 1, 1:04 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Allen, Bourbon, Butler, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cowley and 14 more	7 hr
Jun 1, 1:27 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Finney, Grant, Gray, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell and 7 more	2 hr
Jun 1, 2:09 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Finney, Grant, Gray, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell and 9 more	3 hr
Jun 1, 2:34 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allen, Bourbon, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cowley, Crawford and 7 more	116 min
Jun 1, 4:58 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barber, Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Finney, Ford and 12 more	2 hr
Jun 1, 5:18 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Allen, Barber, Barton, Butler, Chautauqua, Clark and 37 more	5 hr
Jun 1, 7:26 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barber, Chautauqua, Comanche, Cowley, Elk, Harper and 7 more	94 min
Jun 1, 7:58 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Chautauqua, Montgomery	3 hr
May 31, 10:27 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Butler, Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Scott and 1 more	63 min
Jun 1, 6:17 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Oregon	88 min
Jun 1, 8:36 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Barry, McDonald, Newton	6 hr
Jun 1, 10:18 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Cherokee, Haskell, McIntosh, Mayes, Muskogee and 5 more	57 min
Jun 1, 6:28 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alfalfa, Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Cleveland, Coal and 25 more	92 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Missouri, 2008 Tornado Watches in Kansas, 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.