Alert archive / Alabama / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 487, NWS Birmingham, AL

October 25, 1997Franklin County, Alabama

NWS Birmingham, AL issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Oct 25, 1997, 10:59 AM CDT for Franklin County, Alabama. It was in force for 61 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: Oct 25, 1997, 10:59 AM CDT (15:59 UTC)
Expired: Oct 25, 1997, 12:00 PM CDT
In force: 61 min
Issued by: NWS Birmingham, AL
Area: Whole counties

County Franklin 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
Oct 25, 8:30 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	7 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 4.0 hours before the alert went out and 171 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: 1546 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -6 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 507 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 45 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 119 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 191 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.9
Supercell composite: 4.8

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
TTAA00 KHSV 251600 RRA
SVRHSV
ALC059-251700-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HUNTSVILLE AL
1059 AM CDT SAT OCT 25 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HUNTSVILLE HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL NOON CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS...
 
IN NORTH ALABAMA
 
   ...FRANKLIN COUNTY
 
AT 1056 AM CDT WEATHER SERVICE RADAR IN HUNTSVILLE INDICATED A SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM IN FRANKLIN COUNTY FROM RED BAY TO NEAR HODGES.
 
THIS STORM IS NOVING EAST-NORTHEAST AT NEAR 30 MILES PER HOUR.
 
 
A TORNADO WATCH IS ALSO IN EFFECT FOR THE WARNED AREA.  REMEMBER
SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN AND OCCASIONALLY DO PRODUCE TORNADOES
WITH LITTLE OR< NO ADVANCE WARNING.  REMAIN CALM BUT BE ALERT TO
RAPIDLY CHANGING WEATHER CONDITIONS.

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Oct 25, 8:08 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	DeKalb	52 min
Oct 25, 10:18 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Franklin	42 min
Oct 25, 10:18 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Marion	47 min
Oct 25, 11:00 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Marion	45 min
Oct 25, 11:10 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Winston	45 min
Oct 25, 11:45 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lawrence	60 min
Oct 25, 11:48 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Winston	47 min
Oct 25, 12:20 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Cullman	65 min
Oct 25, 12:22 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Lawrence, Limestone, Morgan	68 min
Oct 25, 1:04 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Blount	51 min
Oct 25, 1:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Madison, Marshall	67 min
Oct 25, 1:22 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Montgomery	48 min
Oct 25, 1:27 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Pike	48 min
Oct 25, 2:13 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Bullock, Macon	52 min
Oct 25, 2:27 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Pike	48 min
Oct 25, 2:34 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Russell	46 min
Oct 25, 2:37 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Randolph	48 min
Oct 25, 2:45 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Barbour	50 min
Oct 25, 4:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Franklin	69 min
Oct 25, 5:45 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Colbert, Franklin, Lawrence	60 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Alabama, 1997 Every 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.