Alert archive / Mississippi / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 26, NWS Memphis, TN

May 2, 1997Clay County, Mississippi

NWS Memphis, TN issued this tornado warning at May 2, 1997, 8:09 PM CDT for Clay County, Mississippi. 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: May 2, 1997, 8:09 PM CDT (01:09 UTC)
Expired: May 2, 1997, 8:40 PM CDT
In force: 31 min
Issued by: NWS Memphis, TN
Area: Whole counties

County Clay County, MS

The radar

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 50 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:11 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
May 2, 6:45 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), launched 00:00Z, 1.2 hours before the alert went out and 169 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: 1002 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -90 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 864 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 73 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 229 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 211 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.1
Supercell composite: 8.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

216 
WFUS1 KMEM 030109 RRA
TORMEM
MSC025-030140-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEMPHIS TN
809 PM CDT FRI MAY 2 1997

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MEMPHIS TN HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL 840 PM CDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN NORTHEASTERN MISSISSIPPI

   ...CLAY COUNTY
 
AT 807 PM CDT...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A POSSIBLE TORNADO OVER
NORTHWEST OKTIBBEHA COUNTY. THE STORM WAS MOVING NORTHEAST AT 50 MPH
AND THE POSSIBLE TORNADO WILL MOVE NEAR CEDAR BLUFF AND WEST POINT
BETWEEN 810 AND 815 PM.


.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 BLANKETS...PILLOWS...OR CUSHIONS TO
COVER YOUR BODY. AVOID WINDOWS.

The office that day

Everything else NWS Memphis, TN issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 2, 7:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Clay	50 min
May 2, 8:40 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MEG	Lowndes	35 min
May 2, 8:47 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MEG	Monroe	33 min
May 2, 9:47 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Yalobusha	33 min
May 2, 10:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Clay, Lowndes	45 min
May 2, 10:08 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MEG	Lowndes	32 min
May 2, 10:59 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	MEG	Calhoun, Yalobusha	7 hr
May 2, 10:59 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	MEG	Chickasaw, Lee	7 hr
May 2, 11:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Clay	45 min
May 3, 12:15 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Chickasaw, Monroe	35 min
May 3, 12:55 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Clay, Lowndes, Monroe	30 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Mississippi, 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.