Alert archive / Minnesota / Tornado Watches in 2009

Tornado Watch 677

August 8, 2009Lyon County, Osceola County, Iowa; 29 counties in Minnesota; 20 counties in South Dakota

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Aug 8, 2009, 12:47 PM CDT for Lyon County, Osceola County, Iowa; 29 counties in Minnesota; 20 counties in South Dakota. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued
Aug 8, 2009, 12:47 PM CDT (17:47 UTC)
Expired
Aug 8, 2009, 5:56 PM CDT
In force
5 hr
Issued by
the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected
3 in
Strongest gust expected
70 kt
All 51 counties

Lyon County, IA, Osceola County, IA, Big Stone County, MN, Brown County, MN, Chippewa County, MN, Cottonwood County, MN, Douglas County, MN, Jackson County, MN, Kandiyohi County, MN, Lac qui Parle County, MN, Lincoln County, MN, Lyon County, MN, Martin County, MN, McLeod County, MN, Meeker County, MN, Murray County, MN, Nicollet County, MN, Nobles County, MN, Pipestone County, MN, Pope County, MN, Redwood County, MN, Renville County, MN, Rock County, MN, Sibley County, MN, Stearns County, MN, Stevens County, MN, Swift County, MN, Todd County, MN, Traverse County, MN, Watonwan County, MN, Yellow Medicine County, MN, Bon Homme County, SD, Brookings County, SD, Clay County, SD, Codington County, SD, Davison County, SD, Deuel County, SD, Grant County, SD, Hamlin County, SD, Hanson County, SD, Hutchinson County, SD, Kingsbury County, SD, Lake County, SD, Lincoln County, SD, McCook County, SD, Miner County, SD, Minnehaha County, SD, Moody County, SD, Turner County, SD, Union County, SD, Yankton County, SD

The radar

The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 110 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:49 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
60%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
30%
Ten or more severe wind reports
50%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
50%
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
95%

Warnings issued inside it

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

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Aug 8, 1:12 PM CDTTornado WarningFSDHanson, Hutchinson, McCook33 min
Aug 8, 1:15 PM CDTTornado WarningFSDHanson, McCook, Miner30 min
Aug 8, 1:42 PM CDTTornado WarningFSDMcCook, Minnehaha33 min
Aug 8, 1:55 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSDBon Homme, Charles Mix, Gregory, Hutchinson, Yankton50 min
Aug 8, 1:59 PM CDTTornado WarningFSDMcCook, Minnehaha16 min
Aug 8, 2:12 PM CDTTornado WarningFSDLake, McCook, Minnehaha, Moody33 min
Aug 8, 2:25 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSDPipestone35 min
Aug 8, 2:43 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSDBon Homme, Hutchinson, Turner, Yankton30 min
Aug 8, 2:47 PM CDTTornado WarningFSDBon Homme, Yankton23 min
Aug 8, 3:15 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSDLincoln, Lyon, Murray, Pipestone30 min
Aug 8, 3:42 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSDLyon, Murray23 min
Aug 8, 3:46 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMPXBrown, Redwood28 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

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), launched 12:00Z, 5.8 hours before the alert went out and 168 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, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2009-08-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 3 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, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2009-08-08The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -219 square meters per square second.19395878Sfc1 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-564 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1478 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-219 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-319 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Aug 7, 8:58 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBlack Hawk, Boone, Bremer, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Butler and 35 more92 min
Aug 7, 10:14 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCBlack Hawk, Boone, Bremer, Buena Vista, Butler, Calhoun and 27 more6 hr
Aug 8, 1:29 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAllamakee, Benton, Black Hawk, Boone, Bremer, Buchanan and 37 more2 hr
Aug 8, 12:16 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCDickinson, Emmet, Lyon, Osceola29 min
Aug 8, 3:27 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCDickinson, Lyon, Osceola33 min
Aug 8, 9:29 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAnoka, Brown, Carver, Dakota, Goodhue, Hennepin and 12 more91 min
Aug 8, 2:17 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCWilkin58 min
Aug 8, 3:46 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCAnoka, Benton, Blue Earth, Carver, Chisago, Dakota and 24 more8 hr
Aug 8, 5:36 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAnoka, Benton, Blue Earth, Brown, Carver, Chisago and 26 more84 min
Aug 7, 8:29 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBuffalo, Haakon, Hughes, Hyde, Jackson, Jones and 3 more91 min
Aug 7, 8:57 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCBrule, Buffalo, Charles Mix, Gregory, Hand, Hughes and 8 more5 hr
Aug 7, 9:53 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCButte, Harding, Lawrence, Meade, Pennington, Perkins97 min
Aug 7, 11:22 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBuffalo, Hughes, Hyde, Jones, Lyman, Mellette and 2 more83 min
Aug 8, 3:18 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBennett, Butte, Custer, Fall River, Haakon, Jackson and 6 more117 min
Aug 8, 10:52 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAurora, Beadle, Bennett, Brookings, Brown, Brule and 36 more23 min
Aug 8, 11:15 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCAurora, Beadle, Bon Homme, Brookings, Brown, Brule and 31 more4 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Minnesota, 2009Tornado Watches in South Dakota, 2009Tornado Watches in Iowa, 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.