Alert archive / Alabama / Mesoscale Discussions in 2003

Mesoscale Discussion 781

May 6, 20035 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at May 6, 2003, 5:06 AM CDT for 5 states. It was in force for 3 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 6, 2003, 5:06 AM CDT (10:06 UTC)
Expired: May 6, 2003, 8:00 AM CDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 42 counties

Blount County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Cherokee County, AL, Cleburne County, AL, Colbert County, AL, Cullman County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Franklin County, AL, Jackson County, AL, Lawrence County, AL, Limestone County, AL, Madison County, AL, Marshall County, AL, Morgan County, AL, Crittenden County, AR, Cross County, AR, Lee County, AR, Mississippi County, AR, Phillips County, AR, St. Francis County, AR, Chattooga County, GA, Dade County, GA, Benton County, MS, DeSoto County, MS, Marshall County, MS, Tate County, MS, Tippah County, MS, Tishomingo County, MS, Tunica County, MS, Benton County, TN, Cannon County, TN, Carroll County, TN, Crockett County, TN, Dyer County, TN, Gibson County, TN, Haywood County, TN, Lauderdale County, TN, Rutherford County, TN, Sequatchie County, TN, Tipton County, TN, Van Buren County, TN

The watches that followed

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

Tornado Watch 263May 6, 7:40 AM CDT

The nearest sounding before it

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), launched 00:00Z, 10.1 hours before the alert went out and 163 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: 1533 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -35 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 824 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 91 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 202 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 115 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.3
Supercell composite: 4.7

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 5, 7:53 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Colbert and 20 more	2 hr
May 5, 9:05 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bibb, Blount, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Clay and 17 more	7 hr
May 5, 10:27 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Cleburne, Cullman, DeKalb and 12 more	2 hr
May 6, 1:26 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne and 17 more	3 hr
May 6, 1:50 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Cleburne, Colbert, Cullman and 14 more	6 hr
May 6, 7:40 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Cleburne, Colbert, Cullman and 16 more	5 hr
May 6, 10:26 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Cleburne, Colbert, Cullman and 15 more	2 hr
May 6, 12:15 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bibb, Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne and 18 more	90 min
May 6, 12:30 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bibb, Blount, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Chilton and 22 more	7 hr
May 6, 3:41 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bibb, Blount, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Chilton and 20 more	2 hr
May 6, 5:48 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bibb, Chilton, Coosa, Greene, Hale, Jefferson and 5 more	3 hr
May 5, 10:58 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Benton, Boone, Carroll, Fulton, Marion	2 hr
May 6, 10:32 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Benton, Crawford, Franklin, Sebastian, Washington	118 min
May 6, 11:40 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Benton, Boone, Carroll, Crawford, Franklin, Johnson and 4 more	7 hr
May 6, 3:05 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Logan, Polk, Scott, Sebastian	6 hr
May 6, 5:33 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baxter, Benton, Boone, Franklin, Fulton, Johnson and 6 more	117 min
May 6, 6:55 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clark, Cleburne and 32 more	5 hr
May 5, 8:30 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Baldwin, Barrow, Bibb, Butts, Carroll, Clarke and 43 more	8 hr
May 6, 12:55 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Burke, Columbia, Jefferson, Lincoln, McDuffie, Richmond	6 hr
May 6, 1:53 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baldwin, Barrow, Butts, Carroll, Clarke, Clayton and 40 more	2 hr
May 6, 5:23 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Burke, Columbia, Jefferson, McDuffie, Richmond	2 hr
May 6, 9:45 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga and 41 more	5 hr
May 6, 1:18 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Effingham, Screven	117 min

Nearby

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