Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 61, NWS Birmingham, AL

April 22, 1997Lowndes County, Alabama

NWS Birmingham, AL issued this tornado warning at Apr 22, 1997, 3:52 PM CDT for Lowndes County, Alabama. It was in force for 48 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, 3:52 PM CDT (20:52 UTC)
Expired: Apr 22, 1997, 4:40 PM CDT
In force: 48 min
Issued by: NWS Birmingham, AL
Area: Whole counties

County Lowndes County, AL

The radar

The Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 91 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:53 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
Apr 22, 2:45 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 8.9 hours before the alert went out and 115 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: 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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KBHM 222054 RRA
TORBHM
ALC085-222140-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
352 PM CDT TUE APR 22 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BIRMINGHAM AL HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 440 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN CENTRAL ALABAMA

   ...NORTHERN LOWNDES
 
AT 351 PM CDT...A TORNADO WAS INDICATED BY WEATHER RADAR 3 MILES
SOUTHWEST OF BENTON MOVING EAST AT 45 MPH.

SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO ARE...
BENTON                      AROUND 354 PM CDT
WHITEHALL                   AROUND 403 PM CDT
LOWNDESBORO                 AROUND 408 PM CDT
SAINT CLAIR                 AROUND 409 PM CDT
BURKVILLE                   AROUND 415 PM CDT

IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...THE SAFEST PLACE IS A BASEMENT.
GET UNDER A WORKBENCH OR PIECE OF STURDY FURNITURE. IF NO BASEMENT IS
AVAILABLE...SEEK SAFETY IN AN INTERIOR ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET ON THE
LOWEST FLOOR. USE XBLANKETS...PILLOWS...OR CUSHIONS TO COVER YOUR BODY.
AVOID WINDOWS.

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, 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
Apr 22, 6:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Autauga, Elmore, Montgomery	52 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.