Alert archive / North Dakota / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2012

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 500

July 21, 20124 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at Jul 21, 2012, 4:41 PM MDT for 4 states. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued
Jul 21, 2012, 4:41 PM MDT (22:41 UTC)
Expired
Jul 21, 2012, 11:53 PM MDT
In force
7 hr
Issued by
the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected
2 in
Strongest gust expected
60 kt
All 38 counties

Carter County, MT, Custer County, MT, Daniels County, MT, Dawson County, MT, Fallon County, MT, McCone County, MT, Prairie County, MT, Richland County, MT, Roosevelt County, MT, Sheridan County, MT, Wibaux County, MT, Adams County, ND, Billings County, ND, Bowman County, ND, Burke County, ND, Divide County, ND, Dunn County, ND, Golden Valley County, ND, Hettinger County, ND, McKenzie County, ND, Mountrail County, ND, Slope County, ND, Stark County, ND, Williams County, ND, Bennett County, SD, Butte County, SD, Custer County, SD, Fall River County, SD, Haakon County, SD, Harding County, SD, Jackson County, SD, Lawrence County, SD, Meade County, SD, Pennington County, SD, Perkins County, SD, Ziebach County, SD, Crook County, WY, Weston County, WY

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
30%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
30%
Ten or more severe hail reports
20%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
20%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
50%

Warnings issued inside it

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

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Jul 21, 5:23 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRLawrence67 min
Jul 21, 5:29 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRCuster, Pennington10 min
Jul 21, 5:35 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZCarter31 min
Jul 21, 5:40 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRLawrence, Pennington65 min
Jul 21, 5:44 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGGWRichland, Roosevelt61 min
Jul 21, 5:45 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRCrook42 min
Jul 21, 5:47 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBISMcKenzie, Williams58 min
Jul 21, 5:55 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRLawrence, Pennington18 min
Jul 21, 5:59 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRLawrence, Meade40 min
Jul 21, 6:03 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRPennington40 min
Jul 21, 6:16 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRCuster39 min
Jul 21, 6:21 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRButte, Lawrence24 min
Jul 21, 6:29 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRCrook, Weston39 min
Jul 21, 6:41 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBISMcKenzie, Williams64 min
Jul 21, 6:44 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBISBillings, Golden Valley, McKenzie61 min
Jul 21, 6:45 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGGWRichland30 min
Jul 21, 6:52 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRLawrence, Meade37 min
Jul 21, 7:27 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRCuster55 min
Jul 21, 7:42 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBISBurke, Divide, Williams24 min
Jul 21, 7:49 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBISBillings, Golden Valley, McKenzie56 min
Jul 21, 8:07 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNR68 min
Jul 21, 8:46 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRCuster17 min
Jul 21, 9:14 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBISBurke, Divide61 min
Jul 21, 9:14 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRBennett61 min
Jul 21, 10:02 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNRBennett, Jackson, Mellette, Todd58 min
Jul 21, 11:00 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBISBurke, Renville, Ward30 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

Glasgow Intl Airport, MT (KGGW), launched 12:00Z, 10.7 hours before the alert went out and 262 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, Glasgow Intl Airport, MT at 12:00Z on 2012-07-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 739 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, Glasgow Intl Airport, MT at 12:00Z on 2012-07-21The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 248 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
739 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-229 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1093 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
248 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
249 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.7

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Jul 20, 6:21 PM MDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCFlathead, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral, Missoula, Sanders84 min
Jul 21, 4:25 PM MDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCCarter, Custer, Daniels, Dawson, Fallon, Garfield and 6 more65 min
Jul 20, 6:00 PM MDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCCuster, Haakon, Lawrence, Meade, Pennington90 min
Jul 21, 1:54 PM MDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCButte, Custer, Fall River, Lawrence, Meade, Pennington96 min
Jul 21, 5:12 PM MDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAlbany, Goshen, Laramie, Platte78 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in North Dakota, 2012Severe Thunderstorm Watches in South Dakota, 2012Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Montana, 2012Every 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.