Alert archive / Kansas / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2014

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 147

May 11, 20144 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at May 11, 2014, 9:56 PM CDT for 4 states. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 11, 2014, 9:56 PM CDT (02:56 UTC)
Expired: May 12, 2014, 4:00 AM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 59 counties

Atchison County, KS, Brown County, KS, Butler County, KS, Chase County, KS, Clay County, KS, Cowley County, KS, Dickinson County, KS, Doniphan County, KS, Douglas County, KS, Franklin County, KS, Geary County, KS, Greenwood County, KS, Harper County, KS, Harvey County, KS, Jackson County, KS, Jefferson County, KS, Kingman County, KS, Lyon County, KS, Marion County, KS, Marshall County, KS, McPherson County, KS, Morris County, KS, Nemaha County, KS, Osage County, KS, Pottawatomie County, KS, Reno County, KS, Riley County, KS, Saline County, KS, Sedgwick County, KS, Shawnee County, KS, Sumner County, KS, Wabaunsee County, KS, Andrew County, MO, Atchison County, MO, Holt County, MO, Nodaway County, MO, Worth County, MO, Nemaha County, NE, Pawnee County, NE, Richardson County, NE, Alfalfa County, OK, Beckham County, OK, Blaine County, OK, Custer County, OK, Dewey County, OK, Ellis County, OK, Garfield County, OK, Grant County, OK, Greer County, OK, Harmon County, OK, Harper County, OK, Jackson County, OK, Kay County, OK, Kiowa County, OK, Major County, OK, Roger Mills County, OK, Washita County, OK, Woods County, OK, Woodward County, OK

The radar

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 70 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:59 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: 40%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 60%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 50%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 11, 9:57 PM CDT	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	ICT	McPherson	33 min
May 11, 10:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Harvey, Kingman, McPherson, Reno, Rice	46 min
May 11, 10:24 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	McPherson, Marion, Saline	51 min
May 11, 10:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Dickinson, Geary, Morris	51 min
May 11, 10:47 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Harvey, Sedgwick	58 min
May 11, 10:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Harvey, Kingman, Reno	48 min
May 11, 11:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ICT	Butler, Harvey, Marion, Sedgwick	48 min
May 12, 1:29 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Clay, Dickinson, Geary, Riley	31 min
May 12, 1:45 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Lyon, Morris	30 min
May 12, 2:01 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Beckham, Roger Mills	29 min
May 12, 2:08 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TOP	Marshall, Riley	52 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 (KFOE), launched 00:00Z, 2.9 hours before the alert went out and 121 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: 1294 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -118 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1661 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 94 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 264 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.1
Supercell composite: 6.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 11, 8:30 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barber, Barton, Clark, Clay, Cloud, Comanche and 25 more	90 min
May 11, 11:41 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barber, Chase, Dickinson, Geary, Harper, Harvey and 7 more	64 min
May 12, 2:38 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Atchison, Coffey, Douglas, Franklin, Jefferson and 7 more	2 hr
May 12, 3:15 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami, Wyandotte	3 hr
May 12, 11:52 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cherokee, Labette	83 min
May 12, 11:54 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton, Clark, Daviess and 18 more	2 hr
May 12, 1:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Adair, Clark, Knox, Lewis, Linn, Macon and 6 more	7 hr
May 12, 2:12 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Audrain, Barry, Barton, Bates, Benton, Boone and 37 more	2 hr
May 12, 3:21 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Clark, Knox, Lewis, Linn, Macon and 6 more	54 min
May 11, 7:04 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Burt	56 min
May 11, 9:31 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cass, Johnson, Lancaster, Otoe, Saline, Sarpy	59 min
May 11, 7:51 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beckham, Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Kiowa, Roger Mills and 2 more	54 min
May 11, 8:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Beckham, Blaine, Custer, Dewey, Greer, Harmon and 5 more	6 hr

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Kansas, 2014 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Oklahoma, 2014 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Missouri, 2014 Every severe thunderstorm watch in 2014

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.