Alert archive / Alabama / Mesoscale Discussions in 2003

Mesoscale Discussion 1030

May 16, 200328 counties in Alabama

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at May 16, 2003, 3:39 PM CDT for 28 counties in Alabama. It was in force for 96 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 16, 2003, 3:39 PM CDT (20:39 UTC)
Expired: May 16, 2003, 5:15 PM CDT
In force: 96 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 28 counties

Bibb County, AL, Blount County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Cherokee County, AL, Clay County, AL, Cleburne County, AL, Colbert County, AL, Cullman County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Fayette County, AL, Franklin County, AL, Jackson County, AL, Jefferson County, AL, Lamar County, AL, Lawrence County, AL, Limestone County, AL, Madison County, AL, Marion County, AL, Marshall County, AL, Morgan County, AL, Randolph County, AL, Shelby County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Walker County, AL, Winston County, AL

The radar

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 81 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:43 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 nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 8.7 hours before the alert went out and 80 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: 911 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -33 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 639 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 136 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.2
Supercell composite: 1.8

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

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SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 16, 9:39 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Colbert, Lauderdale	96 min
May 16, 1:14 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Colbert and 22 more	2 hr
May 16, 1:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Bibb, Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne and 24 more	6 hr
May 16, 6:18 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Chambers, Clay, Cleburne, Coosa, Randolph, Shelby and 2 more	57 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Alabama, 2003 Every mesoscale discussion in 2003

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.