Alert archive / Texas / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2015

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 201

May 23, 201514 counties in Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at May 23, 2015, 10:31 PM CDT for 14 counties in Texas. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 23, 2015, 10:31 PM CDT (03:31 UTC)
Expired: May 24, 2015, 4:00 AM CDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 0.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 65 kt

Counties Aransas County, TX, Brooks County, TX, Cameron County, TX, Hidalgo County, TX, Jim Hogg County, TX, Jim Wells County, TX, Kenedy County, TX, Kleberg County, TX, Nueces County, TX, Refugio County, TX, San Patricio County, TX, Starr County, TX, Willacy County, TX, Zapata County, TX

The radar

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 71 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 03:34 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: 2%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 30%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 30%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 5%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 5%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 60%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 23, 10:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BRO	Jim Hogg, Starr, Zapata	42 min
May 23, 11:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BRO	Brooks, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Starr	48 min
May 23, 11:47 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CRP	Duval, Jim Wells	43 min
May 23, 11:54 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	BRO	Brooks, Jim Hogg, Starr	111 min
May 23, 11:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BRO	Brooks, Cameron, Hidalgo, Kenedy, Willacy	50 min
May 24, 12:10 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CRP	Jim Wells, Kleberg	35 min
May 24, 12:15 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	BRO	Jim Hogg, Starr, Zapata	2 hr
May 24, 12:34 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	CRP	Jim Wells, Kleberg, Nueces	116 min
May 24, 12:41 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BRO	Kenedy	34 min
May 24, 12:44 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CRP	Kleberg, Nueces	46 min
May 24, 1:02 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	CRP	Jim Wells, Kleberg, Nueces, San Patricio	118 min
May 24, 1:11 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CRP	Nueces, San Patricio	34 min
May 24, 1:27 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BRO	Cameron, Willacy	33 min
May 24, 1:49 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CRP	Aransas, Refugio, San Patricio	41 min
May 24, 2:10 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	CRP	Aransas, Bee, Calhoun, Goliad, Refugio, San Patricio and 1 more	3 hr
May 24, 2:14 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	CRP	Aransas, Refugio	31 min
May 24, 2:15 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BRO	Cameron	45 min
May 24, 2:28 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CRP	Aransas, Calhoun, Goliad, Refugio, Victoria	47 min
May 24, 2:53 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BRO	Cameron	37 min
May 24, 3:41 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	BRO	Cameron	2 hr

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), launched 00:00Z, 3.5 hours before the alert went out and 85 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: 1269 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -29 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1093 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 74 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 23, 8:39 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atascosa, Bastrop, Bee, Bexar, Blanco, Caldwell and 18 more	2 hr
May 23, 8:57 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Archer, Baylor, Clay, Cooke, Denton, Fannin and 7 more	93 min
May 23, 9:46 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Austin, Bell, Bosque, Brazos, Burleson and 28 more	89 min
May 23, 10:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Anderson, Austin, Bell, Bosque, Brazos, Burleson and 34 more	6 hr
May 23, 11:32 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Atascosa, Austin, Bell, Brazos, Burleson and 36 more	88 min
May 23, 11:52 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Brooks, Cameron, Duval, Hidalgo, Jim Wells, Kenedy and 3 more	83 min
May 23, 11:59 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bandera, Gillespie, Kendall, Kerr, Kinney, Real and 2 more	91 min
May 24, 2:12 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Aransas, Brazoria, Calhoun, Cameron, Fort Bend, Jackson and 4 more	93 min
May 24, 3:16 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Collin, Fannin, Grayson	59 min
May 24, 12:05 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bowie, Cass, Marion	115 min
May 24, 12:34 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bowie, Cass, Morris	6 hr
May 24, 3:15 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Armstrong, Briscoe, Callahan, Childress, Coleman, Collingsworth and 26 more	90 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Texas, 2015 Every severe thunderstorm watch 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.