Alert archive / Minnesota / Tornado Watches in 2013

Tornado Watch 180

May 19, 201340 counties in Iowa; 47 counties in Minnesota; 5 counties in Wisconsin

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 19, 2013, 1:10 PM CDT for 40 counties in Iowa; 47 counties in Minnesota; 5 counties in Wisconsin. It was in force for 8 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 19, 2013, 1:10 PM CDT (18:10 UTC)
Expired: May 19, 2013, 9:00 PM CDT
In force: 8 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 55 kt

All 92 counties

Allamakee County, IA, Benton County, IA, Black Hawk County, IA, Boone County, IA, Bremer County, IA, Buchanan County, IA, Butler County, IA, Calhoun County, IA, Cerro Gordo County, IA, Chickasaw County, IA, Clay County, IA, Clayton County, IA, Delaware County, IA, Dickinson County, IA, Dubuque County, IA, Emmet County, IA, Fayette County, IA, Floyd County, IA, Franklin County, IA, Greene County, IA, Grundy County, IA, Hamilton County, IA, Hancock County, IA, Hardin County, IA, Howard County, IA, Humboldt County, IA, Jones County, IA, Kossuth County, IA, Linn County, IA, Marshall County, IA, Mitchell County, IA, Palo Alto County, IA, Pocahontas County, IA, Story County, IA, Tama County, IA, Webster County, IA, Winnebago County, IA, Winneshiek County, IA, Worth County, IA, Wright County, IA, Anoka County, MN, Blue Earth County, MN, Brown County, MN, Carver County, MN, Chippewa County, MN, Chisago County, MN, Cottonwood County, MN, Dakota County, MN, Dodge County, MN, Faribault County, MN, Fillmore County, MN, Freeborn County, MN, Goodhue County, MN, Hennepin County, MN, Houston County, MN, Isanti County, MN, Jackson County, MN, Kandiyohi County, MN, Lac qui Parle County, MN, Le Sueur County, MN, Lyon County, MN, Martin County, MN, McLeod County, MN, Meeker County, MN, Mower County, MN, Murray County, MN, Nicollet County, MN, Olmsted County, MN, Pope County, MN, Ramsey County, MN, Redwood County, MN, Renville County, MN, Rice County, MN, Scott County, MN, Sherburne County, MN, Sibley County, MN, Stearns County, MN, Steele County, MN, Stevens County, MN, Swift County, MN, Wabasha County, MN, Waseca County, MN, Washington County, MN, Watonwan County, MN, Winona County, MN, Wright County, MN, Yellow Medicine County, MN, Buffalo County, WI, Pepin County, WI, Pierce County, WI, Polk County, WI, Saint Croix County, WI

The radar

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 83 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:11 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: 10%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 30%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 5%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 20%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 10%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 70%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 19, 2:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Floyd, Mitchell	64 min
May 19, 3:03 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ARX	Floyd, Mitchell	42 min
May 19, 3:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Chickasaw, Floyd, Howard, Mitchell	47 min
May 19, 3:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Anoka, Ramsey, Washington	42 min
May 19, 3:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ARX	Chickasaw, Floyd, Howard, Mitchell	39 min
May 19, 3:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Mitchell	37 min
May 19, 4:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Olmsted, Wabasha	61 min
May 19, 4:16 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ARX	Howard	44 min
May 19, 4:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Dakota, Hennepin, Rice, Scott	40 min
May 19, 4:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Dakota, Goodhue, Washington	33 min
May 19, 4:29 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Howard, Mitchell	46 min
May 19, 4:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Wabasha	25 min
May 19, 4:44 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	ARX	Howard, Mitchell	6 hr
May 19, 4:50 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Goodhue	40 min
May 19, 4:54 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Washington	36 min
May 19, 4:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Olmsted, Winona	46 min
May 19, 5:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Dunn, Pepin, Pierce, Saint Croix	42 min
May 19, 5:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Floyd, Mitchell	40 min
May 19, 5:23 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Chisago, Washington	37 min
May 19, 5:26 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MPX	Pierce, Saint Croix	34 min
May 19, 5:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Wabasha, Winona	59 min
May 19, 5:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Calhoun, Pocahontas, Webster	51 min
May 19, 5:45 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	DMX	Calhoun, Pocahontas, Webster	45 min
May 19, 5:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Barron, Dunn, Polk, Saint Croix	39 min
May 19, 5:55 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	ARX	Floyd, Howard, Mitchell	6 hr
May 19, 6:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Chisago, Isanti	15 min
May 19, 6:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Adair, Dallas, Greene, Guthrie, Madison	46 min
May 19, 6:21 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Olmsted, Wabasha, Winona	39 min
May 19, 6:23 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Humboldt, Kossuth	52 min
May 19, 6:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Barron, Polk, Rusk	19 min
May 19, 6:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Buffalo, Trempealeau	33 min
May 19, 6:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Dallas, Polk, Story	48 min
May 19, 6:49 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	DMX	Polk, Story	26 min
May 19, 6:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Fillmore, Olmsted, Wabasha, Winona	64 min
May 19, 7:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Boone, Dallas, Story	52 min
May 19, 7:10 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ARX	Winona	35 min
May 19, 7:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	DMX	Jasper, Marshall, Polk, Story	46 min
May 19, 7:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Buffalo, Trempealeau	54 min
May 19, 7:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Jasper, Marshall, Story	52 min
May 19, 8:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Black Hawk, Bremer, Butler, Grundy, Tama	40 min
May 19, 8:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Black Hawk, Tama	44 min
May 19, 8:41 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ARX	Chickasaw, Fayette, Floyd, Howard, Winneshiek	64 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

Omaha, NE (KOAX), launched 12:00Z, 6.2 hours before the alert went out and 371 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: 1125 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 80 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 18, 8:33 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Cass, Cherokee, Crawford, Fremont, Harrison and 13 more	117 min
May 18, 9:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Fremont, Harrison, Lyon, Mills, Monona, Montgomery and 6 more	5 hr
May 19, 1:48 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Adams, Audubon, Buena Vista, Carroll, Cass and 17 more	87 min
May 19, 11:30 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Appanoose, Benton, Black Hawk, Boone, Bremer, Buchanan and 52 more	90 min
May 19, 1:47 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Fremont, Page	10 hr
May 19, 2:59 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adair, Adams, Appanoose, Audubon, Benton, Boone and 50 more	8 hr
May 19, 5:04 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allamakee, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Butler and 28 more	56 min
May 18, 11:27 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clay, Wilkin	63 min
May 18, 11:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Clay, Norman, Wilkin	4 hr
May 19, 2:32 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clay, Norman, Wilkin	88 min
May 19, 5:25 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Pine	5 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Minnesota, 2013 Tornado Watches in Iowa, 2013 Tornado Watches in Wisconsin, 2013 Every tornado watch in 2013

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.