Alert archive / Oklahoma / Mesoscale Discussions in 2015

Mesoscale Discussion 657

May 16, 20156 counties in Kansas; 15 counties in Oklahoma

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at May 16, 2015, 10:55 AM CDT for 6 counties in Kansas; 15 counties in Oklahoma. It was in force for 95 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued
May 16, 2015, 10:55 AM CDT (15:55 UTC)
Expired
May 16, 2015, 12:30 PM CDT
In force
95 min
Issued by
the Storm Prediction Center
Chance of a watch
40%
All 21 counties

Butler County, KS, Chautauqua County, KS, Cowley County, KS, Elk County, KS, Greenwood County, KS, Sumner County, KS, Beckham County, OK, Blaine County, OK, Custer County, OK, Dewey County, OK, Garfield County, OK, Grant County, OK, Kay County, OK, Kingfisher County, OK, Logan County, OK, Major County, OK, Noble County, OK, Osage County, OK, Pawnee County, OK, Payne County, OK, Roger Mills County, OK

The radar

The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 49 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 15:55 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.

The watches that followed

Watches SPC issued over any of the same counties within four hours of this discussion.

The nearest sounding before it

Norman, OK (KOUN), launched 12:00Z, 3.9 hours before the alert went out and 170 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, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2015-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 538 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, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 2015-05-16The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 137 square meters per square second.193958Sfc1 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
538 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
590 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
137 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
107 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
4.6

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 15, 8:05 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCClark, Ford, Grant, Gray, Haskell, Meade and 4 more2 hr
May 16, 12:43 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBarton, Clark, Edwards, Ellis, Ford, Graham and 15 more92 min
May 16, 12:01 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCFinney, Grant, Hamilton, Haskell, Kearny, Morton and 3 more89 min
May 16, 1:15 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCDecatur, Gove, Graham, Lane, Logan, Ness and 8 more90 min
May 16, 2:41 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCClark, Decatur, Finney, Ford, Gove, Graham and 24 more5 hr
May 16, 3:04 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCButler, Cowley, Elk, Greenwood, Sedgwick, Sumner86 min
May 16, 3:34 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAtchison, Brown, Chase, Coffey, Doniphan, Douglas and 14 more86 min
May 16, 5:12 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCDecatur, Finney, Ford, Gove, Graham, Grant and 21 more93 min
May 16, 5:46 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAllen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Chase and 20 more59 min
May 16, 5:57 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCAnderson, Atchison, Brown, Coffey, Doniphan, Douglas and 10 more5 hr
May 16, 6:16 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCButler, Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk, Greenwood, Harper and 3 more59 min
May 16, 6:23 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCDecatur, Ellis, Ford, Gove, Graham, Gray and 10 more97 min
May 16, 6:36 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCAllen, Butler, Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk, Greenwood and 6 more5 hr
May 15, 10:53 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCBeaver5 hr
May 16, 1:32 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBeaver, Ellis, Harmon88 min
May 16, 11:57 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBeckham, Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Kiowa, Tillman2 hr
May 16, 12:58 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCBeaver, Beckham, Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Roger Mills and 2 more6 hr
May 16, 3:41 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAlfalfa, Atoka, Beckham, Blaine, Bryan, Caddo and 42 more94 min
May 16, 4:00 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCAlfalfa, Atoka, Blaine, Bryan, Caddo, Canadian and 37 more8 hr
May 16, 5:55 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAlfalfa, Beaver, Beckham, Blaine, Bryan, Caddo and 40 more95 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Oklahoma, 2015Mesoscale Discussions in Kansas, 2015Every mesoscale discussion in 2015

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.