Alert archive / Nebraska / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2014

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 162

May 20, 20145 counties in Colorado; 9 counties in Kansas; 14 counties in Nebraska

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at May 20, 2014, 6:27 PM MDT for 5 counties in Colorado; 9 counties in Kansas; 14 counties in Nebraska. It was in force for 4 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 20, 2014, 6:27 PM MDT (00:27 UTC)
Expired: May 20, 2014, 10:32 PM MDT
In force: 4 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 65 kt

All 28 counties

Cheyenne County, CO, Kit Carson County, CO, Phillips County, CO, Sedgwick County, CO, Yuma County, CO, Cheyenne County, KS, Decatur County, KS, Gove County, KS, Logan County, KS, Rawlins County, KS, Sheridan County, KS, Sherman County, KS, Thomas County, KS, Wallace County, KS, Arthur County, NE, Chase County, NE, Deuel County, NE, Dundy County, NE, Frontier County, NE, Garden County, NE, Grant County, NE, Hayes County, NE, Hitchcock County, NE, Keith County, NE, Lincoln County, NE, McPherson County, NE, Perkins County, NE, Red Willow County, NE

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 62 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:29 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: 10%
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: 30%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 30%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 70%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 20, 7:14 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Kit Carson	61 min
May 20, 8:12 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Kit Carson	63 min
May 20, 8:26 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Yuma	64 min
May 20, 8:36 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Kit Carson	54 min
May 20, 9:05 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Kit Carson	55 min
May 20, 9:17 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	GLD	Kit Carson	28 min
May 20, 9:59 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Sherman	61 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

Denver, CO (KDEN), launched 00:00Z, 0.5 hours before the alert went out and 114 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: 1874 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 47 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 8 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 245 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: -0.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 20, 6:02 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Phillips, Sedgwick, Yuma	88 min
May 20, 8:06 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Lincoln, Logan, Phillips, Sedgwick and 2 more	84 min
May 21, 12:09 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Elbert, Morgan and 1 more	96 min
May 21, 12:34 PM MDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and 5 more	8 hr
May 21, 1:42 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baca, Bent, Crowley, El Paso, Kiowa, Las Animas and 4 more	63 min
May 21, 1:58 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Broomfield, Denver, Jefferson	62 min
May 21, 2:18 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Baca, Bent, Crowley, El Paso, Huerfano, Kiowa and 4 more	4 hr
May 21, 4:17 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cheyenne, Elbert, Kit Carson, Lincoln, Washington, Yuma	58 min
May 21, 4:48 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Lincoln, Washington, Yuma	6 hr

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Nebraska, 2014 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Kansas, 2014 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Colorado, 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.