Alert archive / Texas / Tornado Watches in 2023

Tornado Watch 68

March 16, 202318 counties in Oklahoma; 39 counties in Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Mar 16, 2023, 1:33 PM CDT for 18 counties in Oklahoma; 39 counties in Texas. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Mar 16, 2023, 1:33 PM CDT (18:33 UTC)
Expired: Mar 16, 2023, 8:00 PM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 57 counties

Atoka County, OK, Bryan County, OK, Carter County, OK, Choctaw County, OK, Coal County, OK, Cotton County, OK, Garvin County, OK, Jefferson County, OK, Johnston County, OK, Latimer County, OK, LeFlore County, OK, Love County, OK, Marshall County, OK, Murray County, OK, Pittsburg County, OK, Pontotoc County, OK, Pushmataha County, OK, Stephens County, OK, Archer County, TX, Bell County, TX, Bosque County, TX, Clay County, TX, Collin County, TX, Comanche County, TX, Cooke County, TX, Coryell County, TX, Dallas County, TX, Delta County, TX, Denton County, TX, Eastland County, TX, Ellis County, TX, Erath County, TX, Fannin County, TX, Grayson County, TX, Hamilton County, TX, Hill County, TX, Hood County, TX, Hopkins County, TX, Hunt County, TX, Jack County, TX, Johnson County, TX, Kaufman County, TX, Lamar County, TX, Lampasas County, TX, McLennan County, TX, Mills County, TX, Montague County, TX, Palo Pinto County, TX, Parker County, TX, Rains County, TX, Rockwall County, TX, Somervell County, TX, Stephens County, TX, Tarrant County, TX, Wichita County, TX, Wise County, TX, Young County, TX

The radar

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 157 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:35 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: 50%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 60%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 60%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 60%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 95%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Mar 16, 1:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Comanche, Cotton, Tillman	42 min
Mar 16, 2:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Comanche, Cotton, Stephens	41 min
Mar 16, 2:06 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Palo Pinto, Stephens, Young	39 min
Mar 16, 2:23 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Comanche, Cotton, Grady, Stephens, Tillman	40 min
Mar 16, 2:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Carter, Garvin, Stephens	41 min
Mar 16, 2:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	FWD	Jack, Palo Pinto, Parker	50 min
Mar 16, 2:44 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OUN	Carter, Garvin, Stephens	26 min
Mar 16, 2:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Carter, Jefferson, Love	52 min
Mar 16, 2:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Montague	37 min
Mar 16, 3:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Jack, Montague, Wise	43 min
Mar 16, 3:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Carter, Garvin, Murray, Pontotoc	51 min
Mar 16, 3:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	FWD	Jack, Parker, Tarrant, Wise	48 min
Mar 16, 3:41 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Carter, Jefferson, Murray	18 min
Mar 16, 3:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Coal, Hughes, Murray, Pontotoc	39 min
Mar 16, 3:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Parker, Tarrant	39 min
Mar 16, 4:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Carter, Johnston, Love, Marshall	48 min
Mar 16, 4:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FWD	Tarrant	25 min
Mar 16, 4:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Atoka, Coal, Johnston, Pontotoc	44 min
Mar 16, 4:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Atoka, Coal, Johnston	40 min
Mar 16, 4:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Parker, Tarrant	28 min
Mar 16, 4:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OUN	Bryan, Love, Marshall	50 min
Mar 16, 4:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Cooke, Grayson	60 min
Mar 16, 4:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Dallas, Tarrant	44 min
Mar 16, 4:50 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Coryell, Hamilton, Lampasas, Mills	28 min
Mar 16, 4:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Atoka, Coal, Johnston	48 min
Mar 16, 4:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Bryan, Johnston, Marshall	34 min
Mar 16, 4:57 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FWD	Dallas	19 min
Mar 16, 4:58 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Tarrant	47 min
Mar 16, 4:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Pittsburg, Pushmataha	31 min
Mar 16, 5:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	FWD	Ellis, Johnson	57 min
Mar 16, 5:18 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	FWD	Dallas, Tarrant	3 hr
Mar 16, 5:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Collin, Dallas, Hunt, Kaufman, Rockwall	38 min
Mar 16, 5:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Pittsburg, Pushmataha	47 min
Mar 16, 5:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Bell, Coryell, Lampasas	62 min
Mar 16, 5:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	FWD	Dallas, Tarrant	40 min
Mar 16, 5:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Bryan	50 min
Mar 16, 5:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Choctaw, Pushmataha	52 min
Mar 16, 5:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	FWD	Ellis, Johnson, Navarro	49 min
Mar 16, 6:07 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Dallas, Hunt, Kaufman, Rockwall, Van Zandt	38 min
Mar 16, 6:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Bell	40 min
Mar 16, 6:37 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	FWD	Hunt, Kaufman, Rains, Rockwall, Van Zandt	53 min
Mar 16, 6:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Ellis, Henderson, Kaufman, Navarro	66 min
Mar 16, 6:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Dallas, Kaufman	39 min
Mar 16, 6:58 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Ellis, Hill, Johnson	62 min
Mar 16, 7:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Bell	30 min
Mar 16, 7:16 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FWD	Henderson, Kaufman, Navarro	29 min
Mar 16, 7:21 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Bell, Falls, Milam	54 min
Mar 16, 7:21 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Dallas, Ellis, Kaufman	54 min
Mar 16, 7:24 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FWD	Rains, Van Zandt	32 min
Mar 16, 7:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Bell, Coryell, Lampasas	55 min
Mar 16, 7:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Henderson, Kaufman, Van Zandt	52 min
Mar 16, 7:47 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Ellis, Henderson, Kaufman, Navarro	43 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

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), launched 12:00Z, 6.6 hours before the alert went out and 133 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: 525 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 50 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 317 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 429 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Mar 16, 10:27 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Caddo, Canadian, Cleveland, Comanche, Creek, Grady and 7 more	2 hr
Mar 16, 12:52 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Choctaw, Coal, Comanche and 13 more	53 min
Mar 16, 3:03 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Coal, Garvin, Jefferson and 5 more	117 min
Mar 16, 5:38 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, Coal, Latimer, LeFlore and 4 more	97 min
Mar 16, 6:17 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	McCurtain	7 hr
Mar 16, 2:18 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Austin, Brazos, Burleson, Falls, Fayette and 13 more	117 min
Mar 16, 3:43 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Dallas, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant	92 min
Mar 16, 4:25 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bell, Bosque, Coryell, Falls, Hamilton, Hill and 3 more	65 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Texas, 2023 Tornado Watches in Oklahoma, 2023 Every tornado watch 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.