Alert archive / Kentucky / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2003

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 379

May 15, 200347 counties in Kentucky; 19 counties in Tennessee; 8 counties in Virginia

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at May 15, 2003, 12:50 PM CDT for 47 counties in Kentucky; 19 counties in Tennessee; 8 counties in Virginia. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 15, 2003, 12:50 PM CDT (17:50 UTC)
Expired: May 15, 2003, 6:00 PM CDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 74 counties

Adair County, KY, Barren County, KY, Bell County, KY, Boyle County, KY, Breathitt County, KY, Casey County, KY, Clay County, KY, Clinton County, KY, Cumberland County, KY, Elliott County, KY, Estill County, KY, Floyd County, KY, Garrard County, KY, Green County, KY, Harlan County, KY, Hart County, KY, Jackson County, KY, Johnson County, KY, Knott County, KY, Knox County, KY, Larue County, KY, Laurel County, KY, Lawrence County, KY, Lee County, KY, Leslie County, KY, Letcher County, KY, Lincoln County, KY, Madison County, KY, Magoffin County, KY, Marion County, KY, Martin County, KY, McCreary County, KY, Menifee County, KY, Metcalfe County, KY, Monroe County, KY, Morgan County, KY, Owsley County, KY, Perry County, KY, Pike County, KY, Powell County, KY, Pulaski County, KY, Rockcastle County, KY, Russell County, KY, Taylor County, KY, Wayne County, KY, Whitley County, KY, Wolfe County, KY, Anderson County, TN, Campbell County, TN, Claiborne County, TN, Clay County, TN, Cumberland County, TN, Fentress County, TN, Grainger County, TN, Hamblen County, TN, Hancock County, TN, Hawkins County, TN, Jackson County, TN, Morgan County, TN, Overton County, TN, Pickett County, TN, Putnam County, TN, Scott County, TN, Sullivan County, TN, Union County, TN, White County, TN, City of Bristol, VA, City of Norton, VA, Dickenson County, VA, Lee County, VA, Russell County, VA, Scott County, VA, Washington County, VA, Wise County, VA

The radar

The Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 110 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:51 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.

Warnings issued inside it

30 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 15, 1:07 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Laurel	53 min
May 15, 1:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LMK	Barren	48 min
May 15, 1:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Estill, Powell	32 min
May 15, 1:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Fentress, Overton, Pickett	44 min
May 15, 1:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LMK	Adair	34 min
May 15, 1:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Menifee, Powell	61 min
May 15, 2:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LMK	Russell	37 min
May 15, 2:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Morgan, Scott	49 min
May 15, 2:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LMK	Metcalfe	32 min
May 15, 2:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Morgan, Scott	45 min
May 15, 2:17 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OHX	Fentress	13 min
May 15, 2:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Jackson	42 min
May 15, 2:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Pulaski	50 min
May 15, 2:32 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	JKL	Powell	3 hr
May 15, 2:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Owsley	57 min
May 15, 2:37 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	JKL	Jackson	3 hr
May 15, 2:47 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MRX	Morgan, Scott	28 min
May 15, 2:51 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	JKL	Laurel	4 hr
May 15, 2:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Breathitt	54 min
May 15, 2:54 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MRX	Anderson	66 min
May 15, 3:00 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	JKL	Menifee	4 hr
May 15, 3:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	McCreary	57 min
May 15, 3:07 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Wayne	38 min
May 15, 3:21 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Whitley	54 min
May 15, 3:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Anderson, Knox	43 min
May 15, 3:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Laurel	26 min
May 15, 3:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Knox	44 min
May 15, 4:17 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Morgan	43 min
May 15, 4:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Lee	26 min
May 15, 5:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Anderson, Knox	39 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), launched 12:00Z, 5.8 hours before the alert went out and 224 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: 663 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -15 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 607 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 30 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 65 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.1
Supercell composite: 0.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 14, 8:15 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Crittenden, Henderson, Hopkins, Livingston, McLean, Union and 1 more	60 min
May 14, 8:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Caldwell, Crittenden, Livingston, Union	4 hr
May 14, 9:24 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Carroll, Henry, Oldham, Trimble	96 min
May 14, 10:10 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ballard, Caldwell, Carlisle, Crittenden, Fulton, Graves and 5 more	2 hr
May 15, 6:52 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Allen, Barren, Bell, Boyle, Breathitt and 68 more	2 hr
May 15, 10:15 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Anderson, Bath, Boone, Bourbon, Boyle, Bracken and 53 more	6 hr
May 15, 12:22 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Barren, Bell, Boyle, Breathitt, Casey and 37 more	53 min
May 15, 2:20 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Allen, Anderson, Barren, Bath, Bell and 90 more	85 min
May 15, 4:42 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allen, Caldwell, Calloway, Christian, Graves, Logan and 9 more	63 min
May 15, 5:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Allen, Christian, Logan, Monroe, Simpson, Todd and 1 more	6 hr
May 15, 11:08 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Carter, Johnson	2 hr
May 15, 3:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Jefferson, Sevier and 2 more	6 hr
May 15, 5:06 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Jefferson, Sevier and 2 more	84 min
May 15, 6:39 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Sevier	2 hr

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Kentucky, 2003 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Tennessee, 2003 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Virginia, 2003 Every severe thunderstorm watch 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.