Alert archive / Kansas / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2011
Severe Thunderstorm Watch 279
The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at May 11, 2011, 12:16 PM CDT for 54 counties in Kansas; 43 counties in Nebraska. It was in force for 5 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 11, 2011, 12:16 PM CDT (17:16 UTC)
- Expired
- May 11, 2011, 5:00 PM CDT
- In force
- 5 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 2 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 97 counties
Allen County, KS, Anderson County, KS, Brown County, KS, Butler County, KS, Chase County, KS, Chautauqua County, KS, Clay County, KS, Cloud County, KS, Coffey County, KS, Cowley County, KS, Dickinson County, KS, Douglas County, KS, Elk County, KS, Ellsworth County, KS, Franklin County, KS, Geary County, KS, Greenwood County, KS, Harper County, KS, Harvey County, KS, Jackson County, KS, Jefferson County, KS, Jewell County, KS, Kingman County, KS, Labette County, KS, Lincoln County, KS, Lyon County, KS, Marion County, KS, Marshall County, KS, McPherson County, KS, Mitchell County, KS, Montgomery County, KS, Morris County, KS, Nemaha County, KS, Neosho County, KS, Osage County, KS, Osborne County, KS, Ottawa County, KS, Phillips County, KS, Pottawatomie County, KS, Reno County, KS, Republic County, KS, Rice County, KS, Riley County, KS, Rooks County, KS, Russell County, KS, Saline County, KS, Sedgwick County, KS, Shawnee County, KS, Smith County, KS, Sumner County, KS, Wabaunsee County, KS, Washington County, KS, Wilson County, KS, Woodson County, KS, Adams County, NE, Buffalo County, NE, Butler County, NE, Cass County, NE, Clay County, NE, Colfax County, NE, Dawson County, NE, Dodge County, NE, Douglas County, NE, Fillmore County, NE, Franklin County, NE, Furnas County, NE, Gage County, NE, Gosper County, NE, Greeley County, NE, Hall County, NE, Hamilton County, NE, Harlan County, NE, Howard County, NE, Jefferson County, NE, Johnson County, NE, Kearney County, NE, Lancaster County, NE, Merrick County, NE, Nance County, NE, Nemaha County, NE, Nuckolls County, NE, Otoe County, NE, Pawnee County, NE, Phelps County, NE, Platte County, NE, Polk County, NE, Richardson County, NE, Saline County, NE, Sarpy County, NE, Saunders County, NE, Seward County, NE, Sherman County, NE, Thayer County, NE, Valley County, NE, Washington County, NE, Webster County, NE, York County, NE
The radar
The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 86 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:18 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
- 20%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 5%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 20%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 30%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 30%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 30%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 70%
Warnings issued inside it
32 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 11, 12:20 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Jewell | 25 min |
| May 11, 12:40 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Jewell | 50 min |
| May 11, 12:44 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TOP | Clay, Cloud, Ottawa, Republic, Washington | 31 min |
| May 11, 1:04 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | TOP | Marshall, Washington | 27 min |
| May 11, 1:24 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Nuckolls, Thayer | 51 min |
| May 11, 1:32 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Adams, Webster | 43 min |
| May 11, 1:32 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX | Gage, Jefferson, Johnson, Pawnee, Saline | 43 min |
| May 11, 1:47 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | GID | Adams | 28 min |
| May 11, 1:53 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX | Johnson, Nemaha, Otoe, Pawnee | 52 min |
| May 11, 1:59 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | GID | Adams | 20 min |
| May 11, 2:06 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX | Cass, Lancaster, Otoe, Saline, Seward | 39 min |
| May 11, 2:08 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Clay, Fillmore | 37 min |
| May 11, 2:22 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Hamilton, York | 38 min |
| May 11, 2:23 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX | Cass, Otoe | 52 min |
| May 11, 2:41 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | GID | York | 24 min |
| May 11, 2:48 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Hall, Hamilton, Howard, Merrick, Nance, Polk and 1 more | 42 min |
| May 11, 2:50 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | GID | Hamilton, Polk, York | 25 min |
| May 11, 2:56 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX | Cass, Douglas, Sarpy, Saunders, Washington | 49 min |
| May 11, 2:58 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Hamilton, York | 32 min |
| May 11, 3:03 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | GID | Hamilton, Merrick, Nance, Polk | 27 min |
| May 11, 3:14 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | GID | Polk | 12 min |
| May 11, 3:18 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX | Platte | 42 min |
| May 11, 3:22 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Chautauqua, Cowley | 38 min |
| May 11, 3:23 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Hamilton, Merrick, Nance, Polk | 40 min |
| May 11, 3:26 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX | Burt, Butler, Colfax, Cuming, Dodge, Douglas and 4 more | 49 min |
| May 11, 3:28 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | GID | Merrick, Nance | 15 min |
| May 11, 3:52 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX | Antelope, Boone, Madison, Platte, Stanton | 38 min |
| May 11, 3:56 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX | Burt, Colfax, Cuming, Dodge, Stanton, Thurston and 1 more | 49 min |
| May 11, 3:57 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX | Burt, Colfax, Cuming, Dodge, Stanton, Thurston and 1 more | 48 min |
| May 11, 3:58 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Butler, Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk, Greenwood | 47 min |
| May 11, 4:36 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Greenwood | 54 min |
| May 11, 4:55 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Montgomery | 37 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
Topeka, KS (KTOP), launched 12:00Z, 5.3 hours before the alert went out and 199 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
- 2161 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -95 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1016 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -22 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 99 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 3.5
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 11, 7:30 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Meade, Seward, Stevens | 60 min |
| May 11, 11:21 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Butler, Chase, Clay, Cloud, Coffey, Dickinson and 22 more | 84 min |
| May 11, 1:51 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Finney, Ford, Gove and 25 more | 84 min |
| May 11, 3:57 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Cherokee and 25 more | 48 min |
| May 11, 4:00 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Chautauqua and 24 more | 8 hr |
| May 11, 4:52 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Cheyenne, Decatur, Gove, Graham, Logan, Norton and 7 more | 6 hr |
| May 11, 6:02 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Barber, Barton, Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Ellis and 9 more | 88 min |
| May 11, 6:35 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Cherokee, Labette | 55 min |
| May 11, 2:31 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Burt, Butler, Cass, Colfax, Cuming, Dakota and 8 more | 59 min |
| May 11, 2:53 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Antelope, Boone, Burt, Butler, Cass, Colfax and 24 more | 6 hr |
| May 11, 5:03 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Cedar, Dakota, Dixon | 57 min |
Nearby
Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Kansas, 2011Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Nebraska, 2011Every severe thunderstorm watch in 2011
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.