Alert archive / Kansas / Tornado Watches in 2015
Tornado Watch 181
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 16, 2015, 6:36 PM CDT for 12 counties in Kansas. It was in force for 5 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 16, 2015, 6:36 PM CDT (23:36 UTC)
- Expired
- May 16, 2015, 11:52 PM CDT
- In force
- 5 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 2.5 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
Counties Allen County, KS, Butler County, KS, Chautauqua County, KS, Cowley County, KS, Elk County, KS, Greenwood County, KS, Labette County, KS, Montgomery County, KS, Neosho County, KS, Sumner County, KS, Wilson County, KS, Woodson County, KS
What SPC expected
The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.
- Two or more tornadoes
- 40%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 30%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 50%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 10%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 50%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 30%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 70%
Warnings issued inside it
2 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 16, 7:35 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Harper, Sumner | 55 min |
| May 16, 10:48 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Allen, Labette, Montgomery, Neosho, Wilson, Woodson | 57 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
Topeka, KS (KFOE), launched 12:00Z, 11.6 hours before the alert went out and 186 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 768 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -17 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 632 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 60 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 77 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.7
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 15, 8:05 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Clark, Ford, Grant, Gray, Haskell, Meade and 4 more | 2 hr |
| May 16, 12:43 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Barton, Clark, Edwards, Ellis, Ford, Graham and 15 more | 92 min |
| May 16, 10:55 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Butler, Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk, Greenwood, Sumner | 95 min |
| May 16, 12:01 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Finney, Grant, Hamilton, Haskell, Kearny, Morton and 3 more | 89 min |
| May 16, 1:15 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Decatur, Gove, Graham, Lane, Logan, Ness and 8 more | 90 min |
| May 16, 2:41 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Clark, Decatur, Finney, Ford, Gove, Graham and 24 more | 5 hr |
| May 16, 3:04 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Butler, Cowley, Elk, Greenwood, Sedgwick, Sumner | 86 min |
| May 16, 3:34 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Atchison, Brown, Chase, Coffey, Doniphan, Douglas and 14 more | 86 min |
| May 16, 5:12 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Decatur, Finney, Ford, Gove, Graham, Grant and 21 more | 93 min |
| May 16, 5:46 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Chase and 20 more | 59 min |
| May 16, 5:57 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Anderson, Atchison, Brown, Coffey, Doniphan, Douglas and 10 more | 5 hr |
| May 16, 6:16 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Butler, Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk, Greenwood, Harper and 3 more | 59 min |
| May 16, 6:23 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Decatur, Ellis, Ford, Gove, Graham, Gray and 10 more | 97 min |
Nearby
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.