Alert archive / Alabama / Mesoscale Discussions in 2003

Mesoscale Discussion 1054

May 18, 200318 counties in Alabama; 7 counties in Florida

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at May 18, 2003, 5:52 AM CDT for 18 counties in Alabama; 7 counties in Florida. It was in force for 53 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 18, 2003, 5:52 AM CDT (10:52 UTC)
Expired: May 18, 2003, 6:45 AM CDT
In force: 53 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 25 counties

Baldwin County, AL, Bullock County, AL, Butler County, AL, Clarke County, AL, Coffee County, AL, Conecuh County, AL, Covington County, AL, Crenshaw County, AL, Dale County, AL, Escambia County, AL, Geneva County, AL, Lowndes County, AL, Macon County, AL, Marengo County, AL, Monroe County, AL, Montgomery County, AL, Pike County, AL, Wilcox County, AL, Bay County, FL, Escambia County, FL, Holmes County, FL, Okaloosa County, FL, Santa Rosa County, FL, Walton County, FL, Washington County, FL

The nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 00:00Z, 10.9 hours before the alert went out and 253 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.

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 17, 7:16 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Autauga, Bibb, Blount, Chilton, Choctaw, Clarke and 15 more	119 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
May 18, 12:16 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Gilchrist and 8 more	119 min
May 18, 12:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Dixie and 17 more	6 hr
May 18, 5:22 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Dixie and 15 more	83 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Alabama, 2003 Mesoscale Discussions in Florida, 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.