Alert archive / Iowa / Tornado Watches in 2009

Tornado Watch 617

July 24, 2009Rock Island County, Illinois; 18 counties in Iowa; Grant County, Wisconsin

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Jul 24, 2009, 1:12 PM CDT for Rock Island County, Illinois; 18 counties in Iowa; Grant County, Wisconsin. It was in force for 4 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued
Jul 24, 2009, 1:12 PM CDT (18:12 UTC)
Expired
Jul 24, 2009, 5:00 PM CDT
In force
4 hr
Issued by
the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected
3 in
Strongest gust expected
70 kt

Counties Benton County, IA, Buchanan County, IA, Cedar County, IA, Clayton County, IA, Clinton County, IA, Delaware County, IA, Dubuque County, IA, Fayette County, IA, Iowa County, IA, Jackson County, IA, Johnson County, IA, Jones County, IA, Keokuk County, IA, Linn County, IA, Louisa County, IA, Muscatine County, IA, Scott County, IA, Washington County, IA, Rock Island County, IL, Grant County, WI

The radar

The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 80 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:16 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
50%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
20%
Ten or more severe wind reports
70%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
50%
Ten or more severe hail reports
60%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
70%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
90%

Warnings issued inside it

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

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Jul 24, 1:32 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningARXClayton, Fayette58 min
Jul 24, 1:48 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningARXClayton, Fayette27 min
Jul 24, 1:55 PM CDTTornado WarningARXClayton40 min
Jul 24, 1:55 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDVNBuchanan, Delaware, Dubuque65 min
Jul 24, 2:47 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDVNDelaware, Dubuque, Jones40 min
Jul 24, 3:48 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningARXCrawford, Grant57 min
Jul 24, 4:44 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningARXGrant76 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

Davenport, (KDVN), launched 12:00Z, 6.2 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-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2009-07-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 116 joules per kilogram.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2009-07-24The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 40 square meters per square second.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
116 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-40 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1036 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
40 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Jul 24, 9:51 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCJo Daviess54 min
Jul 24, 3:52 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBureau, Carroll, DeKalb, Henderson, Henry, Jo Daviess and 15 more83 min
Jul 24, 5:02 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCBureau, Carroll, Ford, Henry, Jo Daviess, LaSalle and 9 more6 hr
Jul 24, 10:32 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCAllamakee, Benton, Black Hawk, Boone, Bremer, Buchanan and 35 more6 hr
Jul 24, 2:24 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAdair, Benton, Black Hawk, Boone, Bremer, Butler and 35 more96 min
Jul 24, 6:38 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAdair, Adams, Appanoose, Audubon, Boone, Calhoun and 28 more97 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Iowa, 2009Tornado Watches in Illinois, 2009Tornado Watches in Wisconsin, 2009Every tornado watch in 2009

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.