Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 75, NWS Birmingham, AL

May 2, 1997Jackson County, Alabama

NWS Birmingham, AL issued this tornado warning at May 2, 1997, 5:39 PM CDT for Jackson County, Alabama. It was in force for 66 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: May 2, 1997, 5:39 PM CDT (22:39 UTC)
Expired: May 2, 1997, 6:45 PM CDT
In force: 66 min
Issued by: NWS Birmingham, AL
Area: Whole counties

County Jackson 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
May 2, 3:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), launched 12:00Z, 10.7 hours before the alert went out and 160 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 2241 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 49 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 160 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 297 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KHSV 022238 RRA
TORHSV
ALC071-022345-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HUNTSVILLE AL
539 PM CDT FRI MAY 2 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HUNTSVILLE HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  645 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS...
 
IN NORTH ALABAMA
 
   ...JACKSON COUNTY
 
AT 536 NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS
POSSIIBLY CONTAINING TORNADOES IIN EAST AND SOUTHEAST MADISON COUNTY
MOVING TOWARDS WESTERN JACKSON COUNTY.
 
THE STORMS WERE MOVING EAST NORTHEAST AT AROUND 50 MILES AN HOUR.
 
 
IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...THE SAFEST PLACE IS A
BASEMENT.  GET UNDER A WORKBENCH OR PIECE OF STURDY FURNITURE.d
IF NO BASEMENT IS AVAILABLE...SEEK SHELTER IN AN INTERIOR ROOM
SUCH AS A CLOSET ON THE LOWEST FLOOR.  USE BLANKETS...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
May 2, 3:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Colbert, Lauderdale	62 min
May 2, 3:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Franklin	56 min
May 2, 3:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lamar, Marion	63 min
May 2, 4:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette	64 min
May 2, 4:26 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Colbert, Franklin, Lawrence	64 min
May 2, 4:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Winston	64 min
May 2, 4:38 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Lauderdale	52 min
May 2, 4:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Walker	81 min
May 2, 4:47 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Limestone	58 min
May 2, 4:50 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lamar, Marion	35 min
May 2, 4:54 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Morgan	66 min
May 2, 5:09 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Madison	66 min
May 2, 5:15 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Winston	35 min
May 2, 5:19 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette	31 min
May 2, 5:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lamar	48 min
May 2, 5:29 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cullman	61 min
May 2, 5:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Marshall	69 min
May 2, 5:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Marion	49 min
May 2, 5:50 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Marion	50 min
May 2, 5:56 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Marion	34 min
May 2, 6:06 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	DeKalb	69 min
May 2, 6:09 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Winston	51 min
May 2, 6:20 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Franklin, Lawrence	55 min
May 2, 6:20 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Morgan	55 min
May 2, 6:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Marion	47 min
May 2, 6:40 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Lamar, Marion	45 min
May 2, 6:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Jackson, Marshall	67 min
May 2, 6:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cherokee	23 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.