Alert archive / Alabama / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997
Severe Thunderstorm Warning 163, NWS Birmingham, AL
NWS Birmingham, AL issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Mar 3, 1997, 3:50 AM CST for Coosa County, Elmore County, Alabama. It was in force for 40 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
- Mar 3, 1997, 3:50 AM CST (09:50 UTC)
- Expired
- Mar 3, 1997, 4:30 AM CST
- In force
- 40 min
- Issued by
- NWS Birmingham, AL
- Area
- Whole counties
Counties Coosa County, AL, Elmore County, AL
The radar
The Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 46 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 09:54 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 watch it was issued in
The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.
| Issued | Product | Office | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2, 10:00 PM CST | Tornado Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 00:00Z, 9.8 hours before the alert went out and 71 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 18 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -90 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 588 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 70 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 323 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 420 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.8
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
Special weather statement, Mar 3, 1:55 AM CST, 1 hour 55 minutes before
ALZ001>003-030830- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 155 AM CST MON MAR 3 1997 THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES HAVE BEEN CLEARED FROM TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 50: LAUDERDALE...COLBERT...AND FRANKLIN. A LINE OF POSSIBLE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CONTINUES TO SHIFT EAST ACROSS THE STATE. TORNADO WATCH 50 CONTINUES UNTIL 500 AM FOR OTHER COUNTIES INCLUDED IN THIS WATCH AS WELL AS TO 400 AM FOR OTHER COUNTIES IN TORNADO WATCH 49.
Special weather statement, Mar 3, 1:57 AM CST, 1 hour 53 minutes before
ALZ001>003-030830- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 155 AM CST MON MAR 3 1997 THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES HAVE BEEN CLEARED FROM TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 50: LAUDERDALE...COLBERT.<..AND FRANKLIN. A LINE OF POSSIBLE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CONTINUES TO SHIFT EAST ACROSS THE STATE. TORNADO WATCH 50 CONTINUES UNTIL 500 AM FOR OTHER COUNTIES INCLUDED IN THIS WATCH AS WELL AS TO 400 AM FOR OTHER COUNTIES IN TORNADO WATCH 49.
Special weather statement, Mar 3, 2:30 AM CST, 1 hour 20 minutes before
ALZ004-013-014-015-023-031-032-039-053-030900- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 230 AM CST MON MAR 3 1997 THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES HAVE BEEN CLEARED FROM TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 50: LAWRENCE. THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES HAVE BEEN CLEARED FROM TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 49: WINSTON...FAYETTE...WALKER...TUSCALOOSA...GREENE...HALE MARENGO AND CLARKE. A LINE OF POSSIBLE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CONTINUES TO SHIFT EAST ACROSS THE STATE. TORNADO WATCH 50 CONTINUES UNTIL 500 AM FOR OTHER COUNTIES INCLUDED IN THIS WATCH AS WELL AS TO 400 AM FOR OTHER COUNTIES IN TORNADO WATCH 49.
Special weather statement, Mar 3, 2:33 AM CST, 1 hour 17 minutes before
ALZ004-013-014-015-023-031-032-039-053-030900- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 230 AM CST MON MAR 3 1997 THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES HAVE BEEN CLEARED FROM TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 50: LAWRENCE. THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES HAVE BEEN CLEARED FROM TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 49: WINSTON...FAYETTE...WALKER...TUSCALOOSA...GREENE...HALE MARENGO AND CLARKE. A LINE OF POSSIBLE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CONTINUES TO SHIFT EAST ACROSS THE STATE. TORNADO WATCH 50 CONTINUES UNTIL 500 AM FOR OTHER COUNTIES INCLUDED IN THIS WATCH AS WELL AS TO 400 AM FOR OTHER COUNTIES IN TORNADO WATCH 49.
Special weather statement, Mar 3, 3:05 AM CST, 45 minutes before
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<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Service Notice</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
<main class="wrap">
<section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
<div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
<h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
<p id="message1">
The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
</p>
<p id="message2">
Please try again in a few minutes.
</p>
<p class="small" id="detail">
If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
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</html>The office that day
Everything else NWS Birmingham, AL issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2, 7:29 PM CST | Flash Flood Warning | BMX | Colbert, Franklin, Lawrence | 3 hr |
| Mar 2, 7:29 PM CST | Flash Flood Warning | BMX | Lauderdale, Limestone | 3 hr |
| Mar 2, 11:15 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Colbert, Lauderdale | 45 min |
| Mar 2, 11:35 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Marion | 40 min |
| Mar 2, 11:38 PM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Colbert, Franklin, Lauderdale | 67 min |
| Mar 2, 11:55 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Lamar | 50 min |
| Mar 3, 12:05 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Marion | 55 min |
| Mar 3, 12:29 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Fayette | 61 min |
| Mar 3, 12:45 AM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Colbert, Lauderdale, Lawrence | 60 min |
| Mar 3, 12:45 AM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Franklin | 60 min |
| Mar 3, 12:46 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Winston | 59 min |
| Mar 3, 12:57 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Marion | 18 min |
| Mar 3, 1:02 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Walker | 58 min |
| Mar 3, 1:21 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Limestone | 69 min |
| Mar 3, 1:41 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Lawrence, Morgan | 64 min |
| Mar 3, 2:03 AM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Limestone | 57 min |
| Mar 3, 2:11 AM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Madison, Morgan | 64 min |
| Mar 3, 2:41 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Marshall | 64 min |
| Mar 3, 2:46 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Blount | 44 min |
| Mar 3, 2:59 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Etowah | 46 min |
| Mar 3, 4:10 AM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Coosa, Tallapoosa | 65 min |
Nearby
Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Alabama, 1997Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1997
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.