Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Watches in 1997

Tornado Watch 234

May 2, 199751 counties in Alabama; 6 counties in Georgia; Clarke County, Wayne County, Mississippi

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 2, 1997, 3:00 PM CDT for 51 counties in Alabama; 6 counties in Georgia; Clarke County, Wayne County, Mississippi. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 2, 1997, 3:00 PM CDT (20:00 UTC)
Expired: May 2, 1997, 9:00 PM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 59 counties

Autauga County, AL, Bibb County, AL, Blount County, AL, Butler County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Cherokee County, AL, Chilton County, AL, Choctaw County, AL, Clarke County, AL, Clay County, AL, Cleburne County, AL, Colbert County, AL, Conecuh County, AL, Coosa County, AL, Crenshaw County, AL, Cullman County, AL, Dallas County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Elmore County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Fayette County, AL, Franklin County, AL, Greene County, AL, Hale County, AL, Jackson County, AL, Jefferson County, AL, Lamar County, AL, Lauderdale County, AL, Lawrence County, AL, Limestone County, AL, Lowndes County, AL, Madison County, AL, Marengo County, AL, Marion County, AL, Marshall County, AL, Monroe County, AL, Montgomery County, AL, Morgan County, AL, Perry County, AL, Pickens County, AL, Pike County, AL, Randolph County, AL, Shelby County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Sumter County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tallapoosa County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Walker County, AL, Wilcox County, AL, Winston County, AL, Catoosa County, GA, Chattooga County, GA, Dade County, GA, Floyd County, GA, Walker County, GA, Whitfield County, GA, Clarke County, MS, Wayne County, MS

The radar

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 63 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:00 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.

Warnings issued inside it

47 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

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, 5:39 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Jackson	66 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, 6:14 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FFC	Dade, Walker	46 min
May 2, 6:17 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FFC	Dade, Walker	43 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, 6:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Catoosa, Whitfield	54 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
May 2, 7:05 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cullman	50 min
May 2, 7:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Chattooga	37 min
May 2, 7:13 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Cullman	47 min
May 2, 7:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Madison, Morgan	55 min
May 2, 7:29 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Marshall	61 min
May 2, 7:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Murray, Whitfield	46 min
May 2, 7:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Walker	46 min
May 2, 7:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Jackson	63 min
May 2, 8:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	DeKalb	57 min
May 2, 8:11 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	DeKalb	49 min
May 2, 8:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Marshall	60 min
May 2, 8:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Chattooga, Walker	52 min
May 2, 8:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Dade	52 min
May 2, 8:42 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Cherokee	33 min
May 2, 8:54 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Lamar	61 min

The nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 8.0 hours before the alert went out and 63 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: 1681 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 45 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 176 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 229 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 2, 6:45 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Lamar, Marion, Pickens, Sumter	6 hr
May 2, 12:15 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adams, Alcorn, Attala, Benton, Bolivar, Calhoun and 60 more	7 hr
May 2, 4:30 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adams	7 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Alabama, 1997 Tornado Watches in Georgia, 1997 Tornado Watches in Mississippi, 1997 Every tornado watch 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.