Alert archive / Nebraska / Tornado Watches in 2024

Tornado Watch 273

May 20, 20244 counties in Kansas; 14 counties in Nebraska

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 20, 2024, 9:01 PM CDT for 4 counties in Kansas; 14 counties in Nebraska. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 20, 2024, 9:01 PM CDT (02:01 UTC)
Expired: May 21, 2024, 3:00 AM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 3 in
Strongest gust expected: 70 kt

Counties Cheyenne County, KS, Decatur County, KS, Norton County, KS, Rawlins County, KS, Arthur County, NE, Chase County, NE, Deuel County, NE, Dundy County, NE, Frontier County, NE, Garden County, NE, Hayes County, NE, Hitchcock County, NE, Keith County, NE, Lincoln County, NE, Logan County, NE, McPherson County, NE, Perkins County, NE, Red Willow County, NE

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 151 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:04 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: 30%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 70%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 70%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 70%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 70%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 95%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 20, 10:41 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	GLD	Dundy	64 min
May 20, 11:11 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	GLD	Cheyenne	18 min
May 20, 11:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Lincoln	33 min
May 20, 11:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	GLD	Cheyenne, Rawlins	62 min
May 20, 11:44 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	GLD	Dundy	2 hr
May 21, 12:27 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Cheyenne	33 min
May 21, 12:33 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	GLD	Cheyenne, Rawlins	42 min
May 21, 12:41 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Chase, Hayes	49 min
May 21, 12:58 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	GLD	Hitchcock	75 min
May 21, 12:59 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Cheyenne	46 min
May 21, 1:09 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	GLD	Dundy, Hitchcock, Red Willow	66 min
May 21, 1:24 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Frontier, Hayes	66 min
May 21, 1:26 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LBF	Chase, Hayes	3 hr
May 21, 1:53 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LBF	Hayes	3 hr
May 21, 2:05 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Frontier, Hayes, Lincoln	55 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

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), launched 00:00Z, 2.0 hours before the alert went out and 77 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: 248 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -191 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1142 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 53 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 296 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 6.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 20, 8:25 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cheyenne, Decatur, Norton, Rawlins	95 min
May 20, 10:59 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cheyenne	2 hr
May 20, 11:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Phillips, Smith	9 hr
May 21, 1:29 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cheyenne, Decatur, Rawlins	61 min
May 21, 2:04 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Norton	116 min
May 21, 2:15 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford, Douglas and 11 more	2 hr
May 21, 2:40 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford and 11 more	7 hr
May 20, 10:01 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cass, Dodge, Douglas, Sarpy, Saunders, Seward and 1 more	119 min
May 21, 4:08 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Burt, Butler, Cass, Clay, Colfax and 20 more	2 hr
May 21, 5:51 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Burt, Cass, Cuming, Dodge, Douglas, Lancaster and 5 more	114 min
May 21, 10:27 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Burt, Cass, Cuming, Dakota, Dodge, Douglas and 11 more	2 hr
May 21, 11:10 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Burt, Butler, Cass, Cedar, Colfax, Cuming and 19 more	5 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Nebraska, 2024 Tornado Watches in Kansas, 2024 Every tornado watch in 2024

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.