Alert archive / Alabama / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1999

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 119, NWS Mobile, AL

May 18, 1999Butler County, Crenshaw County, Alabama

NWS Mobile, AL issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 18, 1999, 5:46 PM CDT for Butler County, Crenshaw County, Alabama. It was in force for 74 min. 1 report came from inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued: May 18, 1999, 5:46 PM CDT (22:46 UTC)
Expired: May 18, 1999, 7:00 PM CDT
In force: 74 min
Issued by: NWS Mobile, AL
Area: Whole counties

Counties Butler County, AL, Crenshaw County, AL

The radar

The Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 103 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:45 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.

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
May 18, 5:55 PM CDT	Hail 0.75	Georgiana, AL	Dime size hail was reported by emergency management.

NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.

The nearest sounding before it

Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL (KVPS), launched 12:00Z, 10.8 hours before the alert went out and 140 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: 1387 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 22 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 KMOB 182246 RRA
SVRMOB
ALC013-041-190000-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOBILE AL
546 PM CDT TUE MAY 18 1999

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MOBILE HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
  BUTLER COUNTY IN SOUTHERN ALABAMA
  CRENSHAW COUNTY IN SOUTHERN ALABAMA

* UNTIL 700 PM CDT

* AT 544 PM CDT... AS INDICATED BY DOPPLER RADAR A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM
  WAS LOCATED IN THE VICINITY OF GEORGIANA... MOVING EAST AT 10 MPH.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL REACH THE VICINITY OF -
  AVANT BY 550 PM CDT
  CHAPMAN BY 555 PM CDT
  INDUSTRY BY 615 PM CDT

WHEN THUNDERSTORMS ARE OCCURRING...PEOPLE SHOULD MOVE INSIDE A STRONG
BUILDING. DO NOTd STAND BY WINDOWS. DO NOT USE TELEPHONES OR
ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES UNLESS IN AN EMERGENCY UNTIL THE STORM HAS
PASSED. MOTORISTS SHOULD NOT DRIVE INTO LOW WATER CROSSINGS.

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.

NWS Mobile, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at May 18, 2:16 PM CDT, 3 hours 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 18, 2:16 PM CDT, 3 hours 30 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOBILE AL
213PM CDT TUE MAY 18 1999

BOTTOM END OF THE UPPER TROUGH COMING ACROSS THE AREA TODAY. MODELS
DID A FAIRLY DECENT JOB IN DEPICTING THIS. MEAN MOISTURE INCREASES
AS TROUGH APPROACHES BUT BETTER DYNAMICS ARE OVER CENTRAL AND
NORTHERN ALABAMA...WHERE SPC HAS OUTLOOKED SLIGHT CHANCE THAT JUST
TAPS NORTHEAST COUNTY WARNING AREA. LIGHTNING AND RADAR DATA SHOW
TSTMS DEVELOPING CENTRAL ALABAMA AROUND NOON. EXPECT THESE TO
DEVELOP SLOWLY TO THE SOUTH AS TROUGH MOVES EAST...WILL LIKELY NEED
HIGHER POPS FOR EVENING HOURS OVER SOUTHEAST ZONES AND LESSER OR NO
POPS TO THE WEST. NO POPS AFTER TONIGHT. SURFACE COLD FRONT WILL MOVE
OVER FORECAST AREA TONIGHT...DRIER AIR ALOFT FOLLOWS THE UPPER
TROUGH AND NEXT FEW DAYS LOOK TO BE DRY AGAIN. FAN MAXES LOOK A BIT
COOL FOR TOMORROW BUT MINS SEEM FINE WITH GOOD RADIATION AFTER
CLOUDS MOVE OUT...WARMER TO THE EAST WHERE CLOUDS LINGER INTO THE
LATE NIGHT.

OVER THE COASTAL WATERS...WEAK SURFACE FRONT TO MOVE ACROSS THE
COASTAL WATERS TONIGHT. WINDS SHIFTING TO SOUTHWEST THEN  WEST AND
NORTHWEST WITH TIME. SEAS STILL 2 FEET OR SO.

MOB 62/85/61/86 2000  PNS 64/84/62/85 3100
DTS 66/82/66/82 3100  GZH 59/85/57/86 3100 11

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 18, 5:58 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Covington	47 min
May 18, 6:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Conecuh	78 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Alabama, 1999 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1999

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.