Alert archive / Texas / Mesoscale Discussions in 2026

Mesoscale Discussion 552

April 26, 2026Cotton County, Jefferson County, Oklahoma; Clay County, Montague County, Wichita County, Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Apr 26, 2026, 5:31 PM CDT for Cotton County, Jefferson County, Oklahoma; Clay County, Montague County, Wichita County, Texas. It was in force for 89 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Apr 26, 2026, 5:31 PM CDT (22:31 UTC)
Expired: Apr 26, 2026, 7:00 PM CDT
In force: 89 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Concerning: Tornado watch 151

Counties Cotton County, OK, Jefferson County, OK, Clay County, TX, Montague County, TX, Wichita County, TX

The radar

The Altus AFB radar (KFDR), 90 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:34 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

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), launched 12:00Z, 10.5 hours before the alert went out and 147 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: 2557 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -116 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 717 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 215 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 285 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.4
Supercell composite: 12.6

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted.

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SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 25, 7:43 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Cherokee, Craig, Delaware, Mayes, Nowata and 6 more	2 hr
Apr 25, 8:05 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alfalfa, Garfield, Grant, Major, Woods, Woodward	85 min
Apr 25, 8:27 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atoka, Carter, Coal, Garvin, Johnston, Marshall and 3 more	2 hr
Apr 25, 10:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	McCurtain	8 hr
Apr 26, 1:56 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blaine, Canadian, Creek, Garfield, Grant, Hughes and 9 more	64 min
Apr 26, 3:25 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Comanche, Cotton	2 hr
Apr 26, 3:55 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Caddo, Carter, Comanche, Cotton, Garvin, Grady and 6 more	6 hr
Apr 26, 5:00 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alfalfa, Creek, Garfield, Grant, Kay, Kingfisher and 12 more	2 hr
Apr 26, 5:15 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adair, Cherokee, Craig, Creek, Delaware, Garfield and 13 more	7 hr
Apr 25, 8:03 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Denton, Jack, Wise	57 min
Apr 25, 9:46 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bowie, Camp, Cass, Franklin, Gregg, Harrison and 7 more	119 min
Apr 25, 10:31 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Henderson, Hopkins and 10 more	89 min
Apr 25, 10:45 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis and 15 more	6 hr
Apr 25, 11:42 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bowie, Camp, Cass, Marion, Morris, Red River and 1 more	2 hr
Apr 26, 1:15 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Dallas, Ellis, Kaufman	60 min
Apr 26, 8:03 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Camp, Cass, Franklin, Harrison, Marion, Morris and 2 more	87 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Texas, 2026 Mesoscale Discussions in Oklahoma, 2026 Every mesoscale discussion in 2026

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.