Alert archive / Alabama / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997
Severe Thunderstorm Warning 255, NWS Birmingham, AL
NWS Birmingham, AL issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Apr 22, 1997, 6:53 PM CDT for Autauga County, Elmore County, Montgomery County, Alabama. It was in force for 52 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
- Apr 22, 1997, 6:53 PM CDT (23:53 UTC)
- Expired
- Apr 22, 1997, 7:45 PM CDT
- In force
- 52 min
- Issued by
- NWS Birmingham, AL
- Area
- Whole counties
Counties Autauga County, AL, Elmore County, AL, Montgomery County, AL
The watch it was issued in
The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.
| Issued | Product | Office | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 22, 1:30 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | 8 hr |
| Apr 22, 2:45 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 11.9 hours before the alert went out and 91 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
- 1576 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -52 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 667 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 42 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 117 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 216 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 6.1
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, Apr 22, 3:27 PM CDT, 3 hours 26 minutes before
ALZ001>004-011>015-022-023-030>032-039-222130- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 327 PM CDT TUE APR 22 1997 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS CANCELLED THE TORNADO WATCH FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN WEST ALABAMA... LAUDERDALE..COLBERT..FRANKLIN...LAWRENCE..MARION..WINSTON.. LAMAR..FAYETTE..WALKER..PICKENS..TUSCALOOSA..GREENE..HALE.. SUMTER..MARENGO.
Special weather statement, Apr 22, 3:28 PM CDT, 3 hours 25 minutes before
ALZ001>004-011>015-022-023-030>032-039-222130- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 327 PM CDT TUE APR 22 1997 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS CANCELLED THE TORNADO WATCH FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN WEST ALABAMA... LAUDERDALE..COLBERT..FRANKLIN...LAWRENCE..MARION..WINSTON.. LAMAR..FAYETTE..WALKER..PICKENS..TUSCALOOSA..GREENE..HALE.. SUMTER..MARENGO.
Special weather statement, Apr 22, 4:44 PM CDT, 2 hours 9 minutes before
ALZ009-010-016>021-024-026-222215- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 442 PM CDT TUE APR 22 1997 THE TORNADO WATCH HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES... IN ALABAMA ...JACKSON... DEKALB... CULLMAN... BLOUNT... ETOWAH... CALHOUN ...CHEROKEE... CLEBURNE... JEFFERSON... ST. CLAIR
The office that day
Everything else NWS Birmingham, AL issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 21, 7:04 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Winston | 56 min |
| Apr 21, 7:20 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Jackson | 55 min |
| Apr 21, 7:20 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Limestone | 55 min |
| Apr 21, 7:32 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Madison | 43 min |
| Apr 21, 10:38 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Calhoun | 67 min |
| Apr 21, 11:17 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Cleburne | 43 min |
| Apr 22, 1:03 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Shelby | 57 min |
| Apr 22, 1:12 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Talladega | 48 min |
| Apr 22, 1:33 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Clay | 57 min |
| Apr 22, 1:54 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Franklin | 66 min |
| Apr 22, 2:02 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Greene, Hale, Marengo, Sumter | 48 min |
| Apr 22, 2:13 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Colbert | 62 min |
| Apr 22, 2:30 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Blount, Jefferson, Walker | 50 min |
| Apr 22, 2:40 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Tuscaloosa | 50 min |
| Apr 22, 2:42 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Shelby | 48 min |
| Apr 22, 2:45 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BMX | Bibb | 35 min |
| Apr 22, 2:51 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Autauga, Dallas, Lowndes | 49 min |
| Apr 22, 2:55 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BMX | Shelby | 35 min |
| Apr 22, 3:03 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Chilton | 47 min |
| Apr 22, 3:14 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BMX | Dallas | 46 min |
| Apr 22, 3:18 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Coosa, Talladega | 47 min |
| Apr 22, 3:25 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Elmore, Montgomery | 45 min |
| Apr 22, 3:31 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Tallapoosa | 49 min |
| Apr 22, 3:35 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Autauga, Lowndes | 50 min |
| Apr 22, 3:39 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Clay | 46 min |
| Apr 22, 3:52 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BMX | Lowndes | 48 min |
| Apr 22, 4:00 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BMX | DeKalb | 30 min |
| Apr 22, 4:02 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Elmore, Montgomery | 48 min |
| Apr 22, 4:10 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Chambers, Randolph | 50 min |
| Apr 22, 4:15 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Tallapoosa | 50 min |
| Apr 22, 4:17 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Bullock, Macon | 48 min |
| Apr 22, 4:26 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Lee | 49 min |
| Apr 22, 4:27 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BMX | Chambers | 48 min |
| Apr 22, 4:46 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Marengo | 49 min |
| Apr 22, 5:02 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Sumter | 48 min |
| Apr 22, 5:14 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Russell | 46 min |
| Apr 22, 6:06 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Dallas | 49 min |
| Apr 22, 6:17 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BMX | Dallas | 43 min |
| Apr 22, 6:26 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BMX | Lowndes | 49 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.