Alert archive / Kansas / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2012

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 305

May 27, 201234 counties in Kansas; 5 counties in Oklahoma; 4 counties in Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at May 27, 2012, 3:51 PM CDT for 34 counties in Kansas; 5 counties in Oklahoma; 4 counties in Texas. It was in force for 8 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 27, 2012, 3:51 PM CDT (20:51 UTC)
Expired: May 28, 2012, 12:00 AM CDT
In force: 8 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 65 kt

All 43 counties

Barber County, KS, Barton County, KS, Clark County, KS, Cloud County, KS, Comanche County, KS, Edwards County, KS, Ellis County, KS, Ellsworth County, KS, Ford County, KS, Gray County, KS, Hodgeman County, KS, Jewell County, KS, Kingman County, KS, Kiowa County, KS, Lincoln County, KS, McPherson County, KS, Meade County, KS, Mitchell County, KS, Ness County, KS, Osborne County, KS, Ottawa County, KS, Pawnee County, KS, Phillips County, KS, Pratt County, KS, Reno County, KS, Republic County, KS, Rice County, KS, Rooks County, KS, Rush County, KS, Russell County, KS, Saline County, KS, Smith County, KS, Stafford County, KS, Trego County, KS, Beaver County, OK, Ellis County, OK, Harper County, OK, Woods County, OK, Woodward County, OK, Hemphill County, TX, Lipscomb County, TX, Ochiltree County, TX, Roberts County, TX

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 49 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:53 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: 50%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 30%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 20%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 27, 4:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Republic	37 min
May 27, 5:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Rooks	39 min
May 27, 6:05 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Ellis, Ness, Rush, Trego	40 min
May 27, 6:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Smith	37 min
May 27, 6:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Phillips, Rooks, Smith	23 min
May 27, 6:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Smith	33 min
May 27, 6:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Ellis, Trego	47 min
May 27, 6:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Phillips, Rooks	30 min
May 27, 6:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Ellis, Trego	32 min
May 27, 6:47 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Phillips, Rooks, Smith	43 min
May 27, 7:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Ellis	18 min
May 27, 7:21 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Ellis, Ness, Trego	54 min
May 27, 7:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Osborne, Phillips, Rooks, Smith	21 min
May 27, 7:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Phillips, Smith	23 min
May 27, 7:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Ellis, Hodgeman, Ness, Pawnee, Rush, Trego	50 min
May 27, 8:05 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Ellis, Trego	25 min
May 27, 8:50 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DDC	Ellis, Rush	27 min
May 27, 8:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Phillips	33 min
May 27, 9:19 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Russell	41 min
May 27, 9:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Russell	43 min
May 27, 9:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Lincoln, Russell	37 min
May 27, 10:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Lincoln	33 min
May 27, 10:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Jewell, Mitchell	28 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

Dodge City, (KDDC), launched 12:00Z, 8.9 hours before the alert went out and 45 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: 430 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -355 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1248 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 369 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 381 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.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 26, 9:35 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clark, Edwards, Finney, Ford, Gove, Grant and 12 more	85 min
May 27, 3:10 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barber, Barton, Clark, Cloud, Comanche, Edwards and 22 more	95 min
May 27, 6:17 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barber, Barton, Clark, Cloud, Comanche, Edwards and 17 more	88 min
May 26, 7:09 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Andrews, Bailey, Castro, Cochran, Crane, Culberson and 22 more	96 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Kansas, 2012 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Oklahoma, 2012 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Texas, 2012 Every severe thunderstorm watch 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.