Alert archive / Illinois / Tornado Watches in 2019

Tornado Watch 210

May 21, 201917 counties in Illinois; 6 counties in Missouri

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 21, 2019, 8:48 PM CDT for 17 counties in Illinois; 6 counties in Missouri. It was in force for 3 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 21, 2019, 8:48 PM CDT (01:48 UTC)
Expired: May 22, 2019, 12:15 AM CDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 23 counties

Alexander County, IL, Clay County, IL, Coles County, IL, Cumberland County, IL, Effingham County, IL, Franklin County, IL, Hamilton County, IL, Jackson County, IL, Jasper County, IL, Jefferson County, IL, Moultrie County, IL, Perry County, IL, Richland County, IL, Shelby County, IL, Union County, IL, Wayne County, IL, Williamson County, IL, Bollinger County, MO, Cape Girardeau County, MO, New Madrid County, MO, Perry County, MO, Scott County, MO, Stoddard County, MO

The radar

The Evansville,IN radar (KVWX), 87 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:47 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: 50%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 60%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 30%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 20%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 21, 8:49 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Jackson	26 min
May 21, 8:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILX	Christian, Shelby	37 min
May 21, 9:05 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Perry	40 min
May 21, 9:08 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Perry	37 min
May 21, 9:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Jackson	32 min
May 21, 9:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Alexander	30 min
May 21, 9:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILX	Effingham, Moultrie, Shelby	45 min
May 21, 9:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Franklin, Jackson, Perry	24 min
May 21, 9:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Alexander, Jackson, Union, Williamson	39 min
May 21, 9:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Jefferson	35 min
May 21, 9:46 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Jefferson	29 min
May 21, 10:00 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Franklin, Jefferson	30 min
May 21, 10:05 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Alexander, Union	25 min
May 21, 10:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Franklin, Williamson	40 min
May 21, 10:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Johnson, Union, Williamson	42 min
May 21, 11:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILX	Crawford, Jasper, Lawrence, Richland	48 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

Lincoln, IL (KILX), launched 00:00Z, 1.8 hours before the alert went out and 194 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 667 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 64 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 466 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 506 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.9

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 21, 7:37 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alexander, Bond, Calhoun, Christian, Clark, Clay and 39 more	83 min
May 21, 11:26 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clark, Crawford, Cumberland, Edwards, Gallatin, Hamilton and 11 more	94 min
May 22, 4:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adams, Brown, Bureau, Cass, Fulton, Hancock and 18 more	7 hr
May 22, 5:59 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Brown, Bureau, Calhoun, Cass, Fulton and 20 more	2 hr
May 21, 8:46 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atchison, Holt	59 min
May 22, 3:06 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barry, Barton, Bates, Benton, Camden, Cass and 16 more	114 min
May 22, 3:32 PM CDT	Tornado Watch PDS	SPC	Barton, Bates, Benton, Camden, Carroll, Cass and 22 more	7 hr
May 22, 5:05 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	McDonald, Newton	85 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Illinois, 2019 Tornado Watches in Missouri, 2019 Every tornado watch in 2019

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.