Alert archive / Alabama / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1986

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 16, NWS Birmingham, AL

February 18, 1986Clay County, Alabama

NWS Birmingham, AL issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Feb 18, 1986, 12:20 AM CST for Clay County, Alabama. It was in force for 40 min.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Feb 18, 1986, 12:20 AM CST (06:20 UTC)
Expired: Feb 18, 1986, 1:00 AM CST
In force: 40 min
Issued by: NWS Birmingham, AL
Area: Whole counties

County Clay County, AL

The radar

The WSR-88D network and its archive begin in 1991, so there is no radar volume for this alert.

The nearest sounding before it

Centreville/Bibb, AL (KCKL), launched 00:00Z, 6.3 hours before the alert went out and 131 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: 1299 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -20 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 583 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 248 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 242 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.0
Supercell composite: 5.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

What forecasters said that day

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

In the hours before

Local storm report, Feb 17, 7:28 PM CST, 4 hours 52 minutes before

STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
725 PM CST MON FEB 17 1986

...AT 723 PM, CST, THE POLICE DEPARTMENT AT HALEYVILLE IN NORTHWEST
   ALABAMA'S WINSTON COUNTY REPORTED THAT MARBLE SIZE HAIL WAS
   COVERING THE GROUND. THE THUNDERSTORM THAT WAS PRODUCING THE
   HAIL WAS MOVING NORTHEAST AT 35 MPH. HEAVY RAIN AND SHARP
   LIGHTNING WAS ALSO REPORTED BUT THERE WAS VERY LITTLE WIND.

Local storm report, Feb 17, 8:30 PM CST, 3 hours 50 minutes before

STORM REPORTS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
830 PM CST MON FEB 17 1986

...THE CULLMAN COUNTY EMA OFFICE REPORTS ONE MOBILE HOME BLOWN OFF
   ITS FOUNDATION AT JONES CHAPEL AROUND 8:05 PM CST. JONES CHAPEL
   IS IN NORTHWEST CULLMAN COUNTY ON U. S. 278 ABOUT 20 MILES WEST
   OF CULLMAN. THIS IS ABOUT 55 AIR MILES NORTH-NORTHWEST OF
   BIRMINGHAM.

...THE EMA ALSO HAS NUMEROUS REPORTS OF HAIL ALL OVER WESTERN
   CULLMAN COUNTY. MOST OF$ THE HAIL WAS MARBLE SIZE.

...WFMH RADIO/CULLMAN ALSO REPORTED VIVID LIGHTNING AND HAIL
   AT WEST POINT AND LOGAN IN WEST CULLMAN COUNTY AT 8:15 PM.

Local storm report, Feb 17, 9:17 PM CST, 3 hours 3 minutes before

STORM REPORTS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
905 PM CST MON FEB 17 1986

...AT 905 PM CST THE ALABAMA STATE TROOPERS AT HAMILTON REPORTED
   MARBLE SIZE HAIL AT GUIN IN MARION COUNTY ALABAMA.

Local storm report, Feb 17, 9:29 PM CST, 2 hours 51 minutes before

STORM REPORTS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
928 PM CST MON FEB 17 1986

...AT 923 PM CST THE ETOWAH COUNTY EMA OFFICE AT GADSDEN REPORTED
   WIND GUSTS TO 43 MPH IN DOWNTOWN GADSDEN. WIND DAMAGE HAS
   BEEN REPORTED AT MOUNTAINBORO ON WEST ETOWAH COUNTY WITH
   POWER LINES DOWN. THIS IS ON U. S. 431 ABOUT 15 MILES
   NORTHWEST OF GADSDEN.

...THIS SAME STORM PARTIALLY UNROOFED A HOME AT ALTOONA ALONG
   THE ETOWAH/BLOUNT COUNTY LINE W+ITH A MOBILE HOME ALSO DAMAGED.

Local storm report, Feb 18, 12:06 AM CST, 14 minutes before

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Special weather statement, Feb 18, 12:17 AM CST, 3 minutes before

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  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
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    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
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      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
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        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
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        Please try again in a few minutes.
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The office that day

Everything else NWS Birmingham, AL issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Feb 17, 8:00 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cullman	40 min
Feb 17, 9:45 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Marion	20 min
Feb 17, 9:45 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Walker, Winston	60 min
Feb 17, 9:45 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Pickens	50 min
Feb 17, 9:55 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette	40 min
Feb 17, 10:15 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Greene	20 min
Feb 17, 10:15 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Tuscaloosa	60 min
Feb 17, 11:54 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Chilton, Shelby	56 min
Feb 17, 11:54 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Talladega	56 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Alabama, 1986 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1986

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.