Alert archive / Alabama / Mesoscale Discussions in 2003

Mesoscale Discussion 1053

May 17, 200321 counties in Alabama

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at May 17, 2003, 7:16 PM CDT for 21 counties in Alabama. It was in force for 119 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 17, 2003, 7:16 PM CDT (00:16 UTC)
Expired: May 17, 2003, 9:15 PM CDT
In force: 119 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 21 counties

Autauga County, AL, Bibb County, AL, Blount County, AL, Chilton County, AL, Choctaw County, AL, Clarke County, AL, Coosa County, AL, Cullman County, AL, Dallas County, AL, Hale County, AL, Jefferson County, AL, Lowndes County, AL, Marengo County, AL, Monroe County, AL, Perry County, AL, Shelby County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Washington County, AL, Wilcox County, AL

The radar

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 81 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:15 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 00:00Z, 0.3 hours before the alert went out and 82 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: 1730 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -20 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1037 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 53 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 295 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 351 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 3.3
Supercell composite: 15.1

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 18, 5:52 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baldwin, Bullock, Butler, Clarke, Coffee, Conecuh and 12 more	53 min
May 18, 10:18 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baldwin, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Chambers, Clay and 19 more	87 min
May 18, 11:00 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barbour, Bullock, Chambers, Cleburne, Coffee, Covington and 13 more	5 hr
May 18, 1:10 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston, Russell	95 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.