Alert archive / Kansas / Tornado Watches in 2020
Tornado Watch 212
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 23, 2020, 5:40 PM CDT for 6 counties in Kansas; Dundy County, Hitchcock County, Red Willow County, Nebraska. It was in force for 3 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 23, 2020, 5:40 PM CDT (22:40 UTC)
- Expired
- May 23, 2020, 8:52 PM CDT
- In force
- 3 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 2.5 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
Counties Cheyenne County, KS, Decatur County, KS, Rawlins County, KS, Sherman County, KS, Thomas County, KS, Wallace County, KS, Dundy County, NE, Hitchcock County, NE, Red Willow County, NE
The radar
The Goodland radar (KGLD), 66 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:39 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
- 40%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 20%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 20%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 10%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 40%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 40%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 60%
Warnings issued inside it
1 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 23, 6:01 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD | Cheyenne, Sherman | 44 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
Denver, CO (KDNR), launched 12:00Z, 10.7 hours before the alert went out and 166 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
- 5 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -386 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1779 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 35 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 42 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 23, 3:18 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Cheyenne, Logan, Rawlins, Sherman, Thomas, Wallace | 117 min |
| May 23, 5:35 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Cheyenne, Decatur, Logan, Norton, Rawlins, Sheridan and 3 more | 55 min |
| May 23, 1:48 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Banner, Box Butte, Dawes, Kimball, Morrill, Scotts Bluff and 2 more | 117 min |
| May 23, 2:15 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Arthur, Banner, Box Butte, Chase, Cherry, Cheyenne and 11 more | 7 hr |
| May 23, 3:57 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Arthur, Banner, Box Butte, Chase, Cheyenne, Dawes and 10 more | 93 min |
| May 23, 6:27 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Arthur, Banner, Box Butte, Cheyenne, Dawes, Deuel and 9 more | 93 min |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in Kansas, 2020Tornado Watches in Nebraska, 2020Every tornado watch in 2020
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.