Alert archive / Tennessee / Mesoscale Discussions in 2003

Mesoscale Discussion 1039

May 16, 200312 counties in Alabama; Tishomingo County, Mississippi; 16 counties in Tennessee

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at May 16, 2003, 11:41 PM CDT for 12 counties in Alabama; Tishomingo County, Mississippi; 16 counties in Tennessee. It was in force for 94 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 16, 2003, 11:41 PM CDT (04:41 UTC)
Expired: May 17, 2003, 1:15 AM CDT
In force: 94 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 29 counties

Colbert County, AL, Cullman County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Franklin County, AL, Jackson County, AL, Lauderdale County, AL, Lawrence County, AL, Limestone County, AL, Madison County, AL, Marshall County, AL, Morgan County, AL, Winston County, AL, Tishomingo County, MS, Bedford County, TN, Coffee County, TN, Decatur County, TN, Franklin County, TN, Giles County, TN, Hardin County, TN, Hickman County, TN, Lawrence County, TN, Lewis County, TN, Lincoln County, TN, Marion County, TN, Marshall County, TN, Maury County, TN, Moore County, TN, Perry County, TN, Wayne County, TN

The radar

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 83 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 04:43 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 watches that followed

Watches SPC issued over any of the same counties within four hours of this discussion.

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 401May 17, 12:55 AM CDT

The nearest sounding before it

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), launched 00:00Z, 4.7 hours before the alert went out and 123 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: 625 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -23 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 946 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 95 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.1
Supercell composite: 0.3

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 17, 12:55 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Blount, Colbert, Cullman, Franklin, Lauderdale, Lawrence and 6 more	4 hr
May 17, 2:37 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Cullman, Franklin, Lamar, Lawrence, Limestone and 5 more	53 min
May 17, 7:48 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bibb, Chilton, Choctaw, Clarke, Dallas, Fayette and 14 more	57 min
May 17, 9:20 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bibb, Blount, Cherokee, Choctaw, Colbert, Cullman and 25 more	6 hr
May 17, 10:45 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Autauga, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Calhoun, Chambers and 20 more	90 min
May 17, 1:50 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Butler, Calhoun and 33 more	115 min
May 17, 2:25 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Autauga, Bibb, Blount, Butler, Calhoun, Cherokee and 28 more	8 hr
May 16, 8:38 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Attala, Benton, Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll, Choctaw and 37 more	97 min
May 16, 9:35 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Alcorn, Attala, Benton, Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll and 25 more	6 hr
May 17, 1:54 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Attala, Calhoun, Carroll, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Grenada and 12 more	66 min
May 17, 4:45 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Attala, Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll, Chickasaw, Choctaw and 20 more	5 hr
May 17, 5:42 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alcorn, Benton, Itawamba, Lafayette, Lee, Marshall and 7 more	63 min
May 17, 6:37 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Attala, Calhoun, Carroll, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Claiborne and 18 more	83 min
May 17, 3:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adams, Amite, Claiborne, Clarke, Copiah, Covington and 28 more	5 hr
May 17, 6:04 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Amite, Clarke, Copiah, Covington, Forrest, Greene and 18 more	116 min
May 17, 11:50 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Anderson, Bedford, Bledsoe, Blount, Bradley, Campbell and 41 more	5 hr
May 17, 1:14 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Bledsoe, Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Cannon and 34 more	91 min
May 17, 4:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Anderson, Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Carter, Claiborne and 19 more	4 hr

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Tennessee, 2003 Mesoscale Discussions in Alabama, 2003 Mesoscale Discussions in Mississippi, 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.