Alert archive / Iowa / Tornado Watches in 2022

Tornado Watch 202

May 11, 20224 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 11, 2022, 1:15 PM CDT for 4 states. It was in force for 8 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 11, 2022, 1:15 PM CDT (18:15 UTC)
Expired: May 11, 2022, 9:00 PM CDT
In force: 8 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2 in
Strongest gust expected: 65 kt

All 70 counties

Buena Vista County, IA, Calhoun County, IA, Cherokee County, IA, Clay County, IA, Crawford County, IA, Dickinson County, IA, Emmet County, IA, Hancock County, IA, Humboldt County, IA, Ida County, IA, Kossuth County, IA, Lyon County, IA, Monona County, IA, O'Brien County, IA, Osceola County, IA, Palo Alto County, IA, Plymouth County, IA, Pocahontas County, IA, Sac County, IA, Sioux County, IA, Webster County, IA, Winnebago County, IA, Woodbury County, IA, Blue Earth County, MN, Brown County, MN, Cottonwood County, MN, Faribault County, MN, Jackson County, MN, Lincoln County, MN, Lyon County, MN, Martin County, MN, Murray County, MN, Nobles County, MN, Pipestone County, MN, Redwood County, MN, Rock County, MN, Waseca County, MN, Watonwan County, MN, Antelope County, NE, Burt County, NE, Cedar County, NE, Cuming County, NE, Dakota County, NE, Dixon County, NE, Knox County, NE, Madison County, NE, Pierce County, NE, Stanton County, NE, Thurston County, NE, Wayne County, NE, Beadle County, SD, Bon Homme County, SD, Brookings County, SD, Charles Mix County, SD, Clay County, SD, Davison County, SD, Douglas County, SD, Hanson County, SD, Hutchinson County, SD, Kingsbury County, SD, Lake County, SD, Lincoln County, SD, McCook County, SD, Miner County, SD, Minnehaha County, SD, Moody County, SD, Sanborn County, SD, Turner County, SD, Union County, SD, Yankton County, SD

The radar

The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 35 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:15 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: 60%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 60%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 60%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 50%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 40%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 11, 1:24 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Redwood, Renville	36 min
May 11, 1:31 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MPX	Martin, Watonwan	29 min
May 11, 2:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FSD	Bon Homme, Hutchinson, Yankton	24 min
May 11, 3:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Lake, Minnehaha, Moody	49 min
May 11, 3:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Hanson, Hutchinson, McCook, Turner	45 min
May 11, 4:07 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Lincoln, Pipestone	23 min
May 11, 5:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Redwood, Renville	26 min
May 11, 5:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Cottonwood, Jackson, Murray, Nobles	49 min
May 11, 5:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FSD	Cottonwood	24 min
May 11, 5:49 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FSD	Dickinson, Osceola	26 min
May 11, 5:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Redwood, Renville, Yellow Medicine	39 min
May 11, 5:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Brown, Redwood	65 min
May 11, 5:56 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FSD	Cottonwood	19 min
May 11, 6:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Dickinson, Osceola	36 min
May 11, 6:11 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MPX	Brown, Redwood	34 min
May 11, 6:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Brown, Watonwan	44 min
May 11, 6:18 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FSD	Cottonwood, Jackson	27 min
May 11, 6:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MPX	Martin	62 min
May 11, 6:29 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MPX	Brown, Watonwan	46 min
May 11, 6:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	FSD	Clay, Dickinson	36 min
May 11, 6:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Emmet, Kossuth, Palo Alto	61 min
May 11, 6:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MPX	Blue Earth, Brown, Nicollet, Watonwan	53 min
May 11, 6:53 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MPX	Martin, Watonwan	37 min
May 11, 7:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MPX	Blue Earth, Le Sueur, Nicollet	63 min
May 11, 7:21 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	MPX	Blue Earth, Le Sueur, Nicollet	39 min
May 11, 7:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MPX	Blue Earth, Faribault, Martin	42 min
May 11, 7:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	DMX	Emmet, Kossuth, Palo Alto	48 min
May 11, 8:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MPX	Steele, Waseca	42 min
May 11, 8:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Blue Earth, Faribault	36 min
May 11, 8:33 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MPX	Blue Earth, Waseca	26 min
May 11, 8:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MPX	Steele, Waseca	44 min
May 11, 8:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MPX	Faribault	27 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

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), launched 12:00Z, 6.3 hours before the alert went out and 227 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: 2158 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 58 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 126 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 295 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
May 11, 7:44 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Lyon, Sioux	91 min
May 11, 12:50 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Ida, Lyon and 6 more	2 hr
May 11, 3:52 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Lyon and 4 more	113 min
May 11, 5:50 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Dickinson, Emmet, Osceola	85 min
May 11, 6:32 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Dakota, Goodhue, Hennepin, Le Sueur, Ramsey, Rice and 3 more	88 min
May 11, 5:27 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Anoka, Benton, Blue Earth, Brown, Carver, Chippewa and 34 more	7 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Iowa, 2022 Tornado Watches in South Dakota, 2022 Tornado Watches in Minnesota, 2022 Every tornado watch in 2022

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.