Alert archive / North Dakota / Tornado Watches in 2020

Tornado Watch 318

June 29, 20204 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Jun 29, 2020, 3:56 PM MDT for 4 states. It was in force for 8 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jun 29, 2020, 3:56 PM MDT (21:56 UTC)
Expired: Jun 30, 2020, 12:00 AM MDT
In force: 8 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 3 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 36 counties

Carter County, MT, Custer County, MT, Dawson County, MT, Fallon County, MT, McCone County, MT, Powder River County, MT, Prairie County, MT, Richland County, MT, Roosevelt County, MT, Sheridan County, MT, Wibaux County, MT, Adams County, ND, Billings County, ND, Bowman County, ND, Burke County, ND, Divide County, ND, Dunn County, ND, Golden Valley County, ND, Hettinger County, ND, McKenzie County, ND, McLean County, ND, Mercer County, ND, Mountrail County, ND, Renville County, ND, Slope County, ND, Stark County, ND, Ward County, ND, Williams County, ND, Butte County, SD, Harding County, SD, Lawrence County, SD, Meade County, SD, Perkins County, SD, Campbell County, WY, Crook County, WY, Weston County, WY

The radar

The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 219 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:57 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: 10%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 40%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 70%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 40%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 29, 4:14 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Lawrence, Meade	46 min
Jun 29, 4:31 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GGW	Dawson, Richland, Wibaux	59 min
Jun 29, 4:50 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Billings, Golden Valley, McKenzie	55 min
Jun 29, 4:53 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Lawrence, Meade	17 min
Jun 29, 5:01 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Lawrence, Pennington	44 min
Jun 29, 5:24 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	McKenzie	51 min
Jun 29, 5:41 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Meade	34 min
Jun 29, 5:44 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Lawrence	31 min
Jun 29, 5:45 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Billings, Golden Valley, McKenzie	30 min
Jun 29, 5:53 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Weston	26 min
Jun 29, 6:05 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Lawrence, Pennington	40 min
Jun 29, 6:07 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Dunn, McKenzie	53 min
Jun 29, 6:10 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Dunn, McKenzie	65 min
Jun 29, 6:10 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Perkins	50 min
Jun 29, 6:12 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Billings	48 min
Jun 29, 6:12 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Butte, Meade	27 min
Jun 29, 6:20 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Dunn, McKenzie	25 min
Jun 29, 6:29 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Butte	31 min
Jun 29, 6:32 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Lawrence, Meade	43 min
Jun 29, 6:51 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Dunn	39 min
Jun 29, 6:58 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Meade	18 min
Jun 29, 7:15 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Hettinger, Stark	30 min
Jun 29, 7:16 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Dunn, McKenzie, McLean, Mountrail	59 min
Jun 29, 7:22 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	McKenzie, Mountrail	23 min
Jun 29, 7:29 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Dunn	61 min
Jun 29, 7:30 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Stark	39 min
Jun 29, 7:44 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Mountrail	31 min
Jun 29, 7:45 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Dunn, Stark	30 min
Jun 29, 7:54 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Meade, Pennington	40 min
Jun 29, 8:06 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Dunn, Hettinger, Stark	54 min
Jun 29, 8:12 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GGW	Sheridan	63 min
Jun 29, 8:15 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Burke, Mountrail, Ward	60 min
Jun 29, 8:36 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Butte, Meade	39 min
Jun 29, 8:37 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Adams, Hettinger	38 min
Jun 29, 8:40 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Butte, Lawrence	35 min
Jun 29, 8:47 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Perkins	43 min
Jun 29, 8:59 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Meade, Pennington	24 min
Jun 29, 9:03 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Meade, Pennington	42 min
Jun 29, 9:09 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Meade, Perkins	66 min
Jun 29, 9:20 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Lawrence, Meade	13 min
Jun 29, 10:04 PM MDT	Tornado Warning	UNR	Perkins	26 min
Jun 29, 10:29 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Perkins	37 min
Jun 29, 10:54 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Crook, Weston	66 min
Jun 29, 11:39 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Crook	66 min
Jun 29, 11:57 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Meade, Perkins	63 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

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 12:00Z, 9.9 hours before the alert went out and 224 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: 43 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -458 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1633 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 1 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 77 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 29, 2:44 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Carter, Fallon, Wibaux	2 hr
Jun 28, 8:55 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Burleigh, Emmons, Kidder, Logan, McIntosh, Morton and 3 more	3 hr
Jun 28, 10:16 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Emmons, Kidder, Logan, McIntosh	119 min
Jun 28, 7:09 PM MDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Campbell, Corson, Dewey, Perkins, Potter, Walworth and 1 more	66 min
Jun 28, 7:55 PM MDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Campbell, Corson, Dewey, Edmunds, Faulk, Hughes and 6 more	6 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in North Dakota, 2020 Tornado Watches in Montana, 2020 Tornado Watches in South Dakota, 2020 Every 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.