Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 27, NWS Birmingham, AL

January 24, 1997St. Clair County, Alabama

NWS Birmingham, AL issued this tornado warning at Jan 24, 1997, 8:09 PM CST for St. Clair County, Alabama. It was in force for 36 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: Jan 24, 1997, 8:09 PM CST (02:09 UTC)
Expired: Jan 24, 1997, 8:45 PM CST
In force: 36 min
Issued by: NWS Birmingham, AL
Area: Whole counties

County St. Clair County, AL

The radar

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 74 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:11 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
Jan 24, 4:45 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 00:00Z, 2.2 hours before the alert went out and 74 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: 966 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -6 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 568 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 53 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 494 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 542 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 2.9
Supercell composite: 11.3

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KBHM 250209 RRA
TORBHM
ALC115-250245-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
809 PM CST FRI JAN 24 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BIRMINGHAM HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  845 PM CST
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN CENTRAL ALABAMA
 
   ...NORTHERN ST. CLAIR COUNTY
 
A RADAR-INDICATED TORNADO WAS LOCATED WEST OF STEELE IN EXTREME NORTHERN
ST. CLAIR COUNTY. THIS STORM WILL MOVE NORTHEAST AT 40 MPH AND MOVE BACK
INTO ETOWAH COUNTY SOUTHWEST OF ATTALLA.
 
 
DO NOT USE YOUR CAR TO TRY TO OUTRUN A TORNADO.  CARS ARE EASILY
TOSSED AROUND BY TORNADO WINDS.  IF YOU ARE CAUGHT IN THE PATH OF
A TORNADO...LEAVE THE CAR AND GO TO A$ STRONG BUILDING.  IF NO
STRUCTURE IS NEARBY...SEEK SHELTER IN A DITCH OR LOW SPOT.

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 24, 6:10 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Franklin	65 min
Jan 24, 6:14 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Walker	61 min
Jan 24, 6:17 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Winston	43 min
Jan 24, 6:20 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Morgan	55 min
Jan 24, 6:23 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cleburne	52 min
Jan 24, 6:30 PM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Franklin	60 min
Jan 24, 6:32 PM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	St. Clair	43 min
Jan 24, 6:35 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Jackson	55 min
Jan 24, 6:38 PM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Talladega	37 min
Jan 24, 6:45 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lawrence	60 min
Jan 24, 6:45 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Marshall	60 min
Jan 24, 6:54 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cullman	51 min
Jan 24, 6:54 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Jefferson	51 min
Jan 24, 6:59 PM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Marshall	61 min
Jan 24, 7:01 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Blount	44 min
Jan 24, 7:09 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Morgan	66 min
Jan 24, 7:09 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	DeKalb	66 min
Jan 24, 7:11 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Calhoun	64 min
Jan 24, 7:31 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Limestone, Madison	59 min
Jan 24, 7:31 PM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Blount	44 min
Jan 24, 7:37 PM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Calhoun, Cleburne	53 min
Jan 24, 7:41 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Walker	49 min
Jan 24, 7:46 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Pickens, Tuscaloosa	59 min
Jan 24, 7:53 PM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Etowah	52 min
Jan 24, 7:55 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Jackson	65 min
Jan 24, 8:01 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cullman	59 min
Jan 24, 8:01 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Jefferson	59 min
Jan 24, 8:12 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	DeKalb	63 min
Jan 24, 8:24 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Blount	51 min
Jan 24, 8:28 PM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Jefferson	47 min
Jan 24, 8:33 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Walker	57 min
Jan 24, 8:35 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Greene, Sumter	40 min
Jan 24, 8:41 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Tuscaloosa	49 min
Jan 24, 8:51 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Bibb	69 min
Jan 24, 8:51 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Jefferson, St. Clair, Shelby	69 min
Jan 24, 8:51 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Hale	69 min
Jan 24, 8:59 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cherokee	31 min
Jan 24, 9:03 PM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Blount, St. Clair	27 min
Jan 24, 9:12 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Greene, Sumter	48 min
Jan 24, 9:45 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Etowah	30 min
Jan 24, 9:56 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Bibb, Hale, Shelby	64 min
Jan 24, 9:56 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Greene, Sumter	64 min
Jan 24, 9:56 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Calhoun, St. Clair, Talladega	64 min
Jan 24, 10:18 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Jefferson	42 min
Jan 24, 10:23 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cleburne	67 min
Jan 24, 10:45 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Marengo	45 min
Jan 24, 11:01 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Chilton	44 min
Jan 24, 11:29 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Autauga	31 min
Jan 24, 11:32 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Perry	28 min
Jan 24, 11:36 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Dallas	54 min
Jan 25, 12:09 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Autauga	51 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.