Alert archive / Alabama / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1998

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 268, NWS Birmingham, AL

April 18, 1998Cherokee County, Alabama

NWS Birmingham, AL issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Apr 18, 1998, 9:06 PM CDT for Cherokee County, Alabama. It was in force for 19 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 18, 1998, 9:06 PM CDT (02:06 UTC)
Expired: Apr 18, 1998, 9:25 PM CDT
In force: 19 min
Issued by: NWS Birmingham, AL
Area: Whole counties

County Cherokee 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
Apr 18, 5:45 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), launched 00:00Z, 2.1 hours before the alert went out and 136 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: 589 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -8 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1082 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 79 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 160 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 280 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.7
Supercell composite: 4.5

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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Apr 18, 7:20 PM CDT, 1 hour 46 minutes before

ALZ023-032-039-190125-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
720 PM CDT SAT APR 18 1998

THE TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 246 HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR THE FOLLOWING
COUNTIES...

IN ALABAMA

   ...TUSCALOOSA... HALE... MARENGO

Special weather statement, Apr 18, 8:07 PM CDT, 59 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Local storm report, Apr 18, 8:24 PM CDT, 42 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Local storm report, Apr 18, 8:24 PM CDT, 42 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Special weather statement, Apr 18, 8:54 PM CDT, 12 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 18, 7:01 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Marshall	19 min
Apr 18, 7:02 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Jefferson	33 min
Apr 18, 7:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Chilton	62 min
Apr 18, 7:26 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	BMX	DeKalb	4 hr
Apr 18, 7:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	St. Clair, Talladega	64 min
Apr 18, 7:30 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Lowndes	50 min
Apr 18, 7:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	DeKalb	44 min
Apr 18, 7:39 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Chilton	31 min
Apr 18, 7:44 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Cherokee	46 min
Apr 18, 7:55 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Shelby	20 min
Apr 18, 7:58 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Calhoun	47 min
Apr 18, 8:23 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Talladega	62 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Alabama, 1998 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1998

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.