Alert archive / Oklahoma / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2018
Severe Thunderstorm Watch 69
The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at May 3, 2018, 5:18 AM CDT for 17 counties in Oklahoma; 8 counties in Texas. It was in force for 6 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 3, 2018, 5:18 AM CDT (10:18 UTC)
- Expired
- May 3, 2018, 11:00 AM CDT
- In force
- 6 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 2 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 25 counties
Atoka County, OK, Bryan County, OK, Carter County, OK, Coal County, OK, Comanche County, OK, Cotton County, OK, Garvin County, OK, Hughes County, OK, Jefferson County, OK, Johnston County, OK, Love County, OK, Marshall County, OK, Murray County, OK, Pontotoc County, OK, Seminole County, OK, Stephens County, OK, Tillman County, OK, Archer County, TX, Baylor County, TX, Clay County, TX, Cooke County, TX, Grayson County, TX, Montague County, TX, Wichita County, TX, Wilbarger County, TX
The radar
The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 91 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 10:18 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
- 40%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 20%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 40%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 30%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 70%
Warnings issued inside it
12 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 3, 5:19 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | OUN | Tillman | 26 min |
| May 3, 5:27 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN | Atoka, Coal, Johnston | 33 min |
| May 3, 5:29 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | OUN | Tillman | 16 min |
| May 3, 6:02 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN | Comanche, Cotton, Tillman | 28 min |
| May 3, 6:20 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN | Comanche, Cotton, Grady, Stephens | 25 min |
| May 3, 6:42 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN | Garvin, Grady, Jefferson, Stephens | 33 min |
| May 3, 7:08 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN | Carter, Garvin, Grady, McClain, Murray, Stephens | 37 min |
| May 3, 7:33 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN | Carter, Garvin, McClain, Murray, Pottawatomie | 27 min |
| May 3, 8:20 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN | Hughes, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Seminole | 40 min |
| May 3, 8:24 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | OUN | Pontotoc, Seminole | 14 min |
| May 3, 8:56 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FWD | Montague, Wise | 53 min |
| May 3, 8:59 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OUN | Hughes, Seminole | 46 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
Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), launched 00:00Z, 10.3 hours before the alert went out and 146 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
- 1823 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -104 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1260 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 135 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 171 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.7
- Supercell composite
- 10.0
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2, 7:14 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Atoka, Cherokee, Coal, Craig, Creek, Delaware and 18 more | 2 hr |
| May 2, 8:05 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Adair, Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Cherokee, Choctaw and 30 more | 6 hr |
| May 2, 11:09 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Adair, Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Cherokee, Coal and 26 more | 96 min |
| May 3, 4:06 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bryan, Carter, Cleveland, Coal, Comanche, Cotton and 14 more | 114 min |
| May 3, 9:02 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Adair, Cherokee, Haskell, Hughes, Latimer, LeFlore and 4 more | 88 min |
| May 3, 9:55 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Carter, Coal, Comanche, Cotton, Garvin, Jefferson and 7 more | 65 min |
| May 3, 12:35 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Choctaw, LeFlore, McCurtain | 85 min |
| May 2, 7:17 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Callahan, Coke, Coleman, Concho, Crockett, Eastland and 27 more | 88 min |
| May 2, 10:27 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Borden, Callahan, Coke, Coleman, Concho, Crockett and 28 more | 93 min |
| May 3, 5:55 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bosque, Brown, Callahan, Coleman, Comanche, Concho and 28 more | 2 hr |
| May 3, 7:03 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Bell, Bosque, Brown, Burnet, Coleman, Collin and 38 more | 7 hr |
| May 3, 5:42 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bandera, Bexar, Dimmit, Edwards, Frio, Gillespie and 8 more | 2 hr |
Nearby
Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Oklahoma, 2018Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Texas, 2018Every severe thunderstorm watch in 2018
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.