Alert archive / Washington / Tornado Warnings in 2023

Tornado Warning 1, NWS Portland, OR

October 16, 2023Clark County, Washington

NWS Portland, OR issued this tornado warning at Oct 16, 2023, 2:57 PM PDT for Clark County, Washington. It was in force for 18 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Oct 16, 2023, 2:57 PM PDT (21:57 UTC)
Expired: Oct 16, 2023, 3:15 PM PDT
In force: 18 min
Issued by: NWS Portland, OR
Area: Storm-based polygon
Tornado: Radar indicated
Hail: 0.75 in

County Clark County, WA

The radar

The Portland,OR radar (KRTX), 38 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:58 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.

The nearest sounding before it

Medford/Jackson, OR (KMFR), launched 12:00Z, 10.0 hours before the alert went out and 380 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: 1084 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 84 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 226 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this tornado warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Portland, OR wrote its last area forecast discussion before this tornado warning went out at Oct 16, 12:20 PM PDT, 2 hours 37 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 16, 12:20 PM PDT, 2 hours 37 minutes before

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The office that day

Everything else NWS Portland, OR issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 16, 1:47 AM PDT	Hazardous Seas Warning	PQR		15 hr
Oct 16, 3:31 PM PDT	Areal Flood Advisory	PQR	Multnomah	59 min
Oct 16, 4:07 PM PDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PQR	Clackamas, Multnomah	11 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Washington, 2023 Every tornado warning in 2023 Tornadoes in 2023

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.