Alert archive / Alabama / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 522, NWS Birmingham, AL

November 21, 1997Pike County, Alabama

NWS Birmingham, AL issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Nov 21, 1997, 5:49 PM CST for Pike County, Alabama. It was in force for 31 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: Nov 21, 1997, 5:49 PM CST (23:49 UTC)
Expired: Nov 21, 1997, 6:20 PM CST
In force: 31 min
Issued by: NWS Birmingham, AL
Area: Whole counties

County Pike County, AL

The radar

The Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 59 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:50 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
Nov 21, 2:30 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL (KVPS), launched 12:00Z, 11.8 hours before the alert went out and 156 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: 76 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -7 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 631 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 47 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 116 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 133 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.6

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

254 
WUUS1 KBHM 212350 RRA
SVRBHM
ALC109-220020-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
549 PM CST FRI NOV 21 1997


THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BIRMINGHAM AL HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 620 PM CST
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN SOUTHEASTERN ALABAMA

   ...PIKE COUNTY...

AT 547 PM CST... WEATHER RADAR SHOWED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM
PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL NEAR SHADY GROVE AND YOUNG
BLOOD.  THIS STORM WAS MOVING EAST AROUND 40 MPH...AND WILL AFFECT
MOST AREAS IN PIKE COUNTY THROUGH 620 PM.



<<CALL TO ACTION>>
SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCE DAMAGING WIND IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH...
DESTRUCTIVE HAIL... DEADLY LIGHTNING... AND VERY HEAVY RAIN. FOR
YOUR PROTECTION MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF
YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS. HEAVY RAINS FLOOD ROADS QUICKLY SO DONT
DRIVE INTO AREAS WHERE WATER COVERS THE ROAD.

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Nov 21, 11:01 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Greene, Sumter	49 min
Nov 21, 5:05 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lowndes	35 min
Nov 21, 5:39 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Montgomery	31 min
Nov 21, 5:54 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Bullock, Macon	46 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; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.