Alert archive / Colorado / Mesoscale Discussions in 2015

Mesoscale Discussion 968

June 11, 201514 counties in Colorado; 10 counties in Kansas; Cimarron County, Texas County, Oklahoma

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Jun 11, 2015, 11:56 AM MDT for 14 counties in Colorado; 10 counties in Kansas; Cimarron County, Texas County, Oklahoma. It was in force for 94 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued
Jun 11, 2015, 11:56 AM MDT (17:56 UTC)
Expired
Jun 11, 2015, 1:30 PM MDT
In force
94 min
Issued by
the Storm Prediction Center
Chance of a watch
80%
All 26 counties

Arapahoe County, CO, Baca County, CO, Bent County, CO, Cheyenne County, CO, Crowley County, CO, Douglas County, CO, El Paso County, CO, Elbert County, CO, Kiowa County, CO, Las Animas County, CO, Lincoln County, CO, Otero County, CO, Prowers County, CO, Pueblo County, CO, Grant County, KS, Greeley County, KS, Hamilton County, KS, Haskell County, KS, Kearny County, KS, Morton County, KS, Seward County, KS, Stanton County, KS, Stevens County, KS, Wichita County, KS, Cimarron County, OK, Texas County, OK

The radar

The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 107 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:00 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

Denver, CO (KDEN), launched 12:00Z, 5.9 hours before the alert went out and 192 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, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2015-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 125 joules per kilogram.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2015-06-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -17 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
125 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-49 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
884 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

869 
ACUS11 KWNS 111757
SWOMCD
SPC MCD 111756 
OKZ000-KSZ000-TXZ000-COZ000-NMZ000-111930-

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0968
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
1256 PM CDT THU JUN 11 2015

AREAS AFFECTED...PORTIONS OF ERN CO...SWRN KS...FAR NERN NM...AND
THE OK/TX PANHANDLES

CONCERNING...SEVERE POTENTIAL...WATCH LIKELY 

VALID 111756Z - 111930Z

PROBABILITY OF WATCH ISSUANCE...80 PERCENT

SUMMARY...THE SEVERE POTENTIAL WILL INCREASE THROUGH THE
AFTERNOON...WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS THE MAIN THREATS. AN
ISOLATED TORNADO MAY ALSO BE POSSIBLE. WW ISSUANCE IS LIKELY IN THE
NEXT HOUR OR SO FOR PORTIONS OF THE MCD AREA....MOST LIKELY SERN CO.

DISCUSSION...A COLD FRONT IS LOCATED FROM THE FRONT RANGE OF CO SEWD
TO THE OK/TX PANHANDLES...AND THEN ARCING NEWD ACROSS SWRN INTO
N-CNTRL KS TO A SFC LOW. TEMPERATURES BEHIND THE FRONT HAVE
GENERALLY WARMED INTO THE UPPER 70S/LOWER 80S ACROSS E-CNTRL AND
SERN CO...WITH DEWPOINTS IN THE UPPER 50S TO LOWER 60S. WHILE
POST-FRONTAL MID-LEVEL LAPSE RATES ARE NOT PARTICULARLY STEEP PER
RAP MESOANALYSIS DATA...AROUND 6.5-7.0 DEG C/KM...STRONG DIURNAL
HEATING AMIDST A SUFFICIENTLY MOIST LOW-LEVEL AIRMASS WILL RESULT IN
MUCAPE OF 1000-1500 J/KG OVER MUCH OF THE MCD AREA.

AN UPPER LOW OVER THE WRN STATES WITH EMBEDDED SPEED/VORTICITY
MAXIMA IS APPROACHING THE CNTRL ROCKIES...AND LIFT ASSOCIATED WITH
THESE FEATURES SHOULD ENCOURAGE SCATTERED CONVECTIVE DEVELOPMENT E
OF THE FRONT RANGE IN CO OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL HOURS. EFFECTIVE BULK
SHEAR OF 35-40 KT WILL ALLOW THUNDERSTORMS TO ROTATE...POSING A
LARGE HAIL RISK GIVEN A FAVORABLE THERMODYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT. STEEP
LOW-LEVEL LAPSE RATES SHOULD ALSO ALLOW CONVECTIVE DOWNDRAFTS TO
HAVE A RISK FOR DAMAGING WINDS AS WELL. BACKED ELY TO NELY LOW-LEVEL
WINDS IN SERN CO SUGGEST AN ISOLATED/BRIEF TORNADO OR TWO COULD
OCCUR...ALTHOUGH EFFECTIVE SRH IS NOT FORECAST TO BE PARTICULARLY
STRONG. FURTHER S ALONG/JUST AHEAD OF THE COLD FRONT...ADDITIONAL
STRONG TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP THROUGH THE
AFTERNOON...ALTHOUGH BULK SHEAR VALUES APPEAR TO BE SLIGHTLY WEAKER
COMPARED TO LOCATIONS FURTHER N.

..GLEASON/HART.. 06/11/2015

...PLEASE SEE WWW.SPC.NOAA.GOV FOR GRAPHIC PRODUCT...

ATTN...WFO...DDC...GLD...AMA...PUB...BOU...ABQ...

LAT...LON   38610109 36900051 36380099 36260216 36570312 37010383
            37600463 38500484 39350498 39650473 39850446 39730364
            39130222 38610109

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Jun 11, 12:14 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCBaca, Bent, Cheyenne, Crowley, Elbert, El Paso and 8 more8 hr
Jun 11, 12:49 PM MDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCLogan, Morgan, Weld116 min
Jun 11, 1:32 PM MDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCArchuleta, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezuma and 4 more118 min
Jun 11, 2:38 PM MDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBaca, Bent, Cheyenne, Crowley, Custer, Elbert and 9 more97 min
Jun 11, 12:01 PM MDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBrown, Clay, Dickinson, Geary, Jackson, Marshall and 6 more119 min
Jun 11, 3:47 PM MDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAtchison, Barber, Chase, Comanche, Doniphan, Douglas and 18 more58 min
Jun 11, 3:51 PM MDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCClark, Finney, Ford, Grant, Gray, Haskell and 6 more54 min
Jun 11, 4:03 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCBarber, Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Finney, Ford and 13 more9 hr
Jun 11, 4:22 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCAnderson, Atchison, Brown, Chase, Coffey, Doniphan and 19 more7 hr

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Colorado, 2015Mesoscale Discussions in Kansas, 2015Mesoscale Discussions in Oklahoma, 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.