Alert archive / Colorado / Mesoscale Discussions in 2012

Mesoscale Discussion 621

April 29, 20125 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Apr 29, 2012, 1:22 PM MDT for 5 states. It was in force for 113 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Apr 29, 2012, 1:22 PM MDT (19:22 UTC)
Expired: Apr 29, 2012, 3:15 PM MDT
In force: 113 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

Counties Baca County, CO, Bent County, CO, Prowers County, CO, Morton County, KS, Stanton County, KS, Harding County, NM, Union County, NM, Cimarron County, OK, Dallam County, TX

The radar

The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 188 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:22 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.

The watches that followed

Watches SPC issued over any of the same counties within four hours of this discussion.

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 203Apr 29, 4:10 PM MDT

The nearest sounding before it

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), launched 12:00Z, 7.4 hours before the alert went out and 234 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 972 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 60 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -99 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 271 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 3.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

144 
ACUS11 KWNS 291923
SWOMCD
SPC MCD 291922
OKZ000-KSZ000-TXZ000-COZ000-NMZ000-292115-

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0621
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
0222 PM CDT SUN APR 29 2012

AREAS AFFECTED...NE NM...SE CO...WRN TX AND OK PANHANDLES

CONCERNING...SEVERE POTENTIAL...WATCH POSSIBLE

VALID 291922Z - 292115Z

THUNDERSTORM COVERAGE AND INTENSITY WITH AN INCREASING THREAT FOR
SEVERE HAIL IS EXPECTED TO INCREASE OVER THE NEXT FEW HOURS.
UNCERTAINTY REGARDING COVERAGE PRECLUDES THE NEED FOR A WW AT THIS
TIME.

LATEST VISIBLE SATELLITE IMAGERY DEPICTS AN INCREASED CB FIELD ALONG
THE CO/NM BORDER...LIKELY IN RESPONSE TO LIFT ASSOCIATED WITH AN
APPROACHING SHORTWAVE TROUGH. CURRENTLY...COLD 500 MB TEMPS AND
STEEP MID-LEVEL LAPSE RATES ARE CONTRIBUTING TO MODERATE INSTABILITY
/MLCAPE NEAR 500 J/KG / ACROSS THE REGION...CONFIRMED BY THE
INCREASE IN LIGHTNING ACTIVITY OVER THE PAST HOUR. ADDITIONAL
SURFACE HEATING...EWD PROGRESSION INTO A SLIGHTLY MORE FAVORABLE
ENVIRONMENT -- I.E. DEWPOINTS INCREASING INTO THE 50S -- AND
EFFECTIVE SHEAR VALUES AOA 30 KTS SUGGEST UPDRAFT ORGANIZATION AND
AN INCREASING POTENTIAL FOR HAIL. THIS AREA WILL BE MONITORED
CLOSELY FOR POTENTIAL WW ISSUANCE.

..MOSIER.. 04/29/2012

...PLEASE SEE WWW.SPC.NOAA.GOV FOR GRAPHIC PRODUCT...

ATTN...WFO...DDC...AMA...PUB...ABQ...

LAT...LON   37720343 38110290 38180202 37720175 37010179 36490209
            35920291 35480422 35750477 36600418 37380368 37720343

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 29, 12:53 AM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Labette, Montgomery	2 hr
Apr 29, 4:10 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Barber, Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Finney, Ford and 14 more	8 hr
Apr 29, 4:51 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Butler, Chase, Chautauqua and 24 more	2 hr
Apr 29, 2:13 AM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Curry, Quay, San Miguel	92 min
Apr 29, 4:17 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Chaves, Curry, De Baca, Guadalupe, Harding, Lea and 2 more	88 min
Apr 28, 9:36 PM MDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Caddo, Canadian, Cleveland, Comanche, Cotton, Garvin and 11 more	3 hr
Apr 28, 9:54 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Caddo, Canadian, Cleveland, Comanche, Cotton, Grady and 4 more	2 hr
Apr 28, 10:52 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Adair, Cherokee, Craig, Creek, Delaware, McIntosh and 13 more	5 hr
Apr 29, 12:37 AM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alfalfa, Beckham, Blaine, Custer, Dewey, Garfield and 8 more	23 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Colorado, 2012 Mesoscale Discussions in Kansas, 2012 Mesoscale Discussions in New Mexico, 2012 Every mesoscale discussion in 2012

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.