Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 112, NWS Birmingham, AL

June 16, 1997Jefferson County, Alabama

NWS Birmingham, AL issued this tornado warning at Jun 16, 1997, 5:10 PM CDT for Jefferson County, Alabama. It was in force for 50 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: Jun 16, 1997, 5:10 PM CDT (22:10 UTC)
Expired: Jun 16, 1997, 6:00 PM CDT
In force: 50 min
Issued by: NWS Birmingham, AL
Area: Whole counties

County Jefferson County, AL

The radar

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 44 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:11 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
Jun 16, 1:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	7 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 10.2 hours before the alert went out and 43 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: 108 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -54 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 897 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 136 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 212 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KBHM 162210 RRA
TORBHM
ALC073-162300-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
510 PM CDT MON JUN 16 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BIRMINGHAM AL HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 600 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN CENTRAL ALABAMA

   ...NORTHERN JEFFERSON COUNTY
 
AT 509 PM CDT...WEATHER RADAR SHOWED A POSSIBLE TORNADO 9 MILES
WEST OF MORRIS MOVING EAST AT 35 MPH.

SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO ARE...
GARDENDALE                  AROUND 522 PM CDT
MORRIS                      AROUND 522 PM CDT
WARRIOR                     AROUND 522 PM CDT
PINSON                      AROUND 535 PM CDT
TRUSSVILLE             ~     AROUND 542 PM CDT

IF YOU ARE CAUGHT OUTSIDE...SEEK SAFETY IN A NEARBY REINFORCED
BUILDING. AS A LAST RESORT...SEEK REFUGE IN A CULVERT...DITCH OR LOW
SPOT AND COVER YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR HANDS.

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 16, 1:08 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Colbert	67 min
Jun 16, 1:13 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Lawrence	62 min
Jun 16, 1:50 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Limestone	55 min
Jun 16, 2:02 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Franklin	58 min
Jun 16, 2:20 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Colbert, Lawrence	55 min
Jun 16, 3:03 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Morgan	57 min
Jun 16, 3:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Marion	62 min
Jun 16, 3:13 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Madison	62 min
Jun 16, 3:19 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Franklin	56 min
Jun 16, 3:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lawrence, Limestone	63 min
Jun 16, 3:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Marshall	69 min
Jun 16, 4:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Morgan	59 min
Jun 16, 4:05 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Marshall	55 min
Jun 16, 4:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cleburne	65 min
Jun 16, 4:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cullman, Walker	48 min
Jun 16, 4:53 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Talladega	47 min
Jun 16, 4:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Blount, Jefferson	64 min
Jun 16, 5:16 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Clay	49 min
Jun 16, 5:41 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	St. Clair, Shelby	64 min
Jun 16, 6:02 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Clay	33 min
Jun 16, 6:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Talladega	51 min
Jun 16, 6:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Pickens	64 min
Jun 16, 6:16 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Tallapoosa	49 min
Jun 16, 6:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Clay	49 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Alabama, 1997 Every tornado warning in 1997 Tornadoes 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.