Alert archive / Kansas / Tornado Watches in 2019

Tornado Watch 228

May 24, 201939 counties in Kansas; 11 counties in Nebraska

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 24, 2019, 1:37 AM CDT for 39 counties in Kansas; 11 counties in Nebraska. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued
May 24, 2019, 1:37 AM CDT (06:37 UTC)
Expired
May 24, 2019, 6:28 AM CDT
In force
5 hr
Issued by
the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected
2 in
Strongest gust expected
60 kt
All 50 counties

Barber County, KS, Barton County, KS, Brown County, KS, Clay County, KS, Cloud County, KS, Comanche County, KS, Dickinson County, KS, Edwards County, KS, Ellsworth County, KS, Geary County, KS, Harper County, KS, Harvey County, KS, Jackson County, KS, Jewell County, KS, Kingman County, KS, Kiowa County, KS, Lincoln County, KS, Marion County, KS, Marshall County, KS, McPherson County, KS, Mitchell County, KS, Morris County, KS, Nemaha County, KS, Osborne County, KS, Ottawa County, KS, Pawnee County, KS, Pottawatomie County, KS, Pratt County, KS, Reno County, KS, Republic County, KS, Rice County, KS, Riley County, KS, Rush County, KS, Russell County, KS, Saline County, KS, Shawnee County, KS, Stafford County, KS, Wabaunsee County, KS, Washington County, KS, Cass County, NE, Gage County, NE, Jefferson County, NE, Johnson County, NE, Lancaster County, NE, Nemaha County, NE, Otoe County, NE, Pawnee County, NE, Richardson County, NE, Saline County, NE, Thayer County, NE

The radar

The Topeka radar (KTWX), 78 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 06:38 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
30%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
20%
Ten or more severe wind reports
50%
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
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.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 24, 1:47 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICTEllsworth, Lincoln, Saline58 min
May 24, 2:17 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOPCloud, Ottawa, Republic43 min
May 24, 2:56 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOPClay, Cloud, Ottawa, Republic, Washington49 min
May 24, 4:04 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOPMarshall, Nemaha41 min
May 24, 4:11 AM CDTTornado WarningOAXJohnson, Nemaha, Pawnee, Richardson34 min
May 24, 4:21 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAXNemaha, Pawnee, Richardson39 min
May 24, 4:29 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOPBrown, Nemaha31 min
May 24, 4:36 AM CDTTornado WarningOAXNemaha24 min
May 24, 4:37 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOPBrown, Jackson, Nemaha23 min
May 24, 4:40 AM CDTTornado WarningOAXNemaha, Richardson22 min
May 24, 4:58 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningTOPBrown, Jackson17 min
May 24, 5:27 AM CDTFlash Flood WarningOAXGage, Johnson, Nemaha, Otoe, Pawnee, Richardson6 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

Topeka, KS (KFOE), launched 00:00Z, 6.6 hours before the alert went out and 126 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, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2019-05-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 290 joules per kilogram.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2019-05-24The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 185 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
290 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-125 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
800 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
185 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
247 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
5.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 24, 4:05 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAdams, Fremont, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Ringgold and 2 more115 min
May 24, 4:40 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCAdams, Appanoose, Clarke, Davis, Decatur, Fremont and 13 more4 hr
May 24, 6:43 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAdams, Appanoose, Clarke, Davis, Decatur, Fremont and 13 more2 hr
May 24, 3:25 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAppanoose, Benton, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Cedar and 38 more65 min
May 24, 6:23 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCCedar, Clinton, Des Moines, Dubuque, Henry, Iowa and 12 more4 hr
May 23, 7:07 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBarton, Clay, Cloud, Decatur, Ellis, Ellsworth and 31 more83 min
May 23, 7:42 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCMarshall, Nemaha, Republic, Washington4 hr
May 23, 8:32 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCClark88 min
May 23, 9:53 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCBarber, Clark, Comanche, Kiowa, Pratt, Stafford4 hr
May 23, 11:33 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAtchison, Barton, Brown, Clay, Cloud, Dickinson and 21 more87 min
May 24, 1:42 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAllen, Anderson, Barber, Butler, Chase, Chautauqua and 25 more2 hr
May 24, 2:18 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCAllen, Anderson, Butler, Chase, Chautauqua, Coffey and 21 more8 hr
May 24, 6:04 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCBourbon, Crawford, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami and 1 more5 hr
May 24, 12:15 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCPike90 min
May 24, 3:56 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAdair, Andrew, Buchanan, Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton and 21 more94 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Kansas, 2019Tornado Watches in Nebraska, 2019Every 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.