Alert archive / Kansas / Tornado Watches in 2015

Tornado Watch 176

May 16, 201530 counties in Kansas; 4 counties in Nebraska

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 16, 2015, 2:41 PM CDT for 30 counties in Kansas; 4 counties in Nebraska. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued
May 16, 2015, 2:41 PM CDT (19:41 UTC)
Expired
May 16, 2015, 7:36 PM CDT
In force
5 hr
Issued by
the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected
2 in
Strongest gust expected
60 kt
All 34 counties

Clark County, KS, Decatur County, KS, Finney County, KS, Ford County, KS, Gove County, KS, Graham County, KS, Grant County, KS, Gray County, KS, Greeley County, KS, Hamilton County, KS, Haskell County, KS, Hodgeman County, KS, Kearny County, KS, Lane County, KS, Logan County, KS, Meade County, KS, Morton County, KS, Ness County, KS, Norton County, KS, Phillips County, KS, Rawlins County, KS, Rooks County, KS, Scott County, KS, Seward County, KS, Sheridan County, KS, Stanton County, KS, Stevens County, KS, Thomas County, KS, Trego County, KS, Wichita County, KS, Furnas County, NE, Harlan County, NE, Hitchcock County, NE, Red Willow County, NE

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes
50%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
20%
Ten or more severe wind reports
40%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
10%
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
60%

Warnings issued inside it

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

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 16, 4:03 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDCGrant, Haskell, Seward, Stevens27 min
May 16, 4:31 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDCFinney, Haskell21 min
May 16, 4:49 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDDCFinney, Gray13 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

Dodge City, (KDDC), launched 12:00Z, 7.7 hours before the alert went out and 153 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, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2015-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 0 joules per kilogram.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 2015-05-16The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 51 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL
1786 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
57 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.

915 
WWUS20 KWNS 161939
SEL6  
SPC WW 161939
KSZ000-NEZ000-170200-

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 176
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
240 PM CDT SAT MAY 16 2015

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF 
  WESTERN KANSAS
  SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA

* EFFECTIVE THIS SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 240 PM UNTIL
  900 PM CDT.

* PRIMARY THREATS INCLUDE...
  A FEW TORNADOES POSSIBLE
  SCATTERED DAMAGING WIND GUSTS TO 70 MPH POSSIBLE
  ISOLATED VERY LARGE HAIL EVENTS TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER POSSIBLE

SUMMARY...SUPERCELL STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ALONG THE DRYLINE
WITH A THREAT FOR LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WIND AND A FEW TORNADOES.
SOME STORMS MAY ALSO EVOLVE INTO LINE SEGMENTS THIS EVENING WHICH
COULD AUGMENT THE THREAT FOR DAMAGING WIND.

THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 60 STATUTE
MILES EAST AND WEST OF A LINE FROM 30 MILES EAST NORTHEAST OF
MCCOOK NEBRASKA TO 10 MILES SOUTHWEST OF LIBERAL KANSAS.  FOR A
COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE ASSOCIATED WATCH OUTLINE
UPDATE (WOUS64 KWNS WOU6).

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR
TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH
AREA. PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR
THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS
AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS.

&&

OTHER WATCH INFORMATION...CONTINUE...WW 175...

AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 2 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE
WIND GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO
500. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 23035.


...DIAL

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, 10:55 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCButler, Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk, Greenwood, Sumner95 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, 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, 8:55 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCArthur, Chase, Cherry, Deuel, Frontier, Garden and 10 more4 hr
May 15, 10:53 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCArthur, Chase, Cherry, Frontier, Garden, Grant and 9 more67 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Kansas, 2015Tornado Watches in Nebraska, 2015Every tornado 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.