Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Warnings in 2002
Tornado Warning 30, NWS Birmingham, AL
NWS Birmingham, AL issued this tornado warning at Jul 19, 2002, 4:12 PM CDT for St. Clair County, Alabama. It was in force for 48 min. 2 reports 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
- Jul 19, 2002, 4:12 PM CDT (21:12 UTC)
- Expired
- Jul 19, 2002, 5:00 PM CDT
- In force
- 48 min
- Issued by
- NWS Birmingham, AL
- Area
- Whole counties
County St. Clair County, AL
The radar
The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 74 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:16 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 19, 4:22 PM CDT | Tornado F0 | Springville, AL | Meteorologists from the National Weather Service Warning and Forecast Office in Birmingham completed a storm survey of the damage in St. Clair County. Much of the damage consisted of scattered downed trees and power lines. However, 7.9 miles east-southeast o |
| Jul 19, 4:45 PM CDT | Hail 2 | Springville, AL | Two inch diameter size hail was reported near Springville. |
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
Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 9.2 hours before the alert went out and 74 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1250 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -95 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1036 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 38 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 65 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.5
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
000 WFUS54 KBMX 192112 TORBHM ALC115-192200- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL 412 PM CDT FRI JUL 19 2002 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BIRMINGHAM HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... ST. CLAIR COUNTY IN ALABAMA * UNTIL 500 PM CDT * AT 406 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO 6 MILES NORTH OF SPRINGVILLE...MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 30 MPH. * LOCATIONS NEAR THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO INCLUDE...ASHVILLE... RAGLAND...RIVERSIDE AND SPRINGVILLE. CALL 1-800-856-0758 TO REPORT SEVERE WEATHER.
The office that day
Everything else NWS Birmingham, AL issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 19, 2:21 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Winston | 39 min |
| Jul 19, 3:09 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Marengo | 51 min |
| Jul 19, 3:46 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Blount | 44 min |
| Jul 19, 4:36 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Calhoun | 39 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Alabama, 2002Every tornado warning in 2002Tornadoes in 2002
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.