Alert archive / Alabama / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2003

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 788

July 21, 200319 counties in Alabama; Dade County, Georgia; 16 counties in Mississippi

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at Jul 21, 2003, 1:45 PM CDT for 19 counties in Alabama; Dade County, Georgia; 16 counties in Mississippi. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jul 21, 2003, 1:45 PM CDT (18:45 UTC)
Expired: Jul 21, 2003, 7:00 PM CDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 36 counties

Blount County, AL, Cherokee County, AL, Colbert County, AL, Cullman County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Fayette County, AL, Franklin County, AL, Jackson County, AL, Lamar County, AL, Lauderdale County, AL, Lawrence County, AL, Limestone County, AL, Madison County, AL, Marion County, AL, Marshall County, AL, Morgan County, AL, Walker County, AL, Winston County, AL, Dade County, GA, Alcorn County, MS, Benton County, MS, Calhoun County, MS, Chickasaw County, MS, Clay County, MS, Itawamba County, MS, Lafayette County, MS, Lee County, MS, Marshall County, MS, Monroe County, MS, Pontotoc County, MS, Prentiss County, MS, Tippah County, MS, Tishomingo County, MS, Union County, MS, Webster County, MS

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 21, 1:50 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Alcorn, Prentiss, Tishomingo	40 min
Jul 21, 1:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Colbert	38 min
Jul 21, 2:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Colbert, Lauderdale	25 min
Jul 21, 2:24 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Itawamba, Lee, Prentiss, Tishomingo	51 min
Jul 21, 2:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Franklin	41 min
Jul 21, 2:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Colbert, Lawrence	51 min
Jul 21, 3:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Marion	59 min
Jul 21, 3:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Limestone, Madison, Morgan	45 min
Jul 21, 3:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Franklin	23 min
Jul 21, 3:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Itawamba	30 min
Jul 21, 3:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Itawamba	24 min
Jul 21, 3:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Winston	63 min
Jul 21, 3:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Cullman	42 min
Jul 21, 3:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Jackson	63 min
Jul 21, 4:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Marion	45 min
Jul 21, 4:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Madison, Morgan	29 min
Jul 21, 4:07 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lamar	53 min
Jul 21, 4:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Monroe	33 min
Jul 21, 4:19 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Marshall	41 min
Jul 21, 4:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cherokee	63 min
Jul 21, 4:37 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette	68 min
Jul 21, 4:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	DeKalb	44 min
Jul 21, 4:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Dade	23 min
Jul 21, 4:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Dade	18 min
Jul 21, 5:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Jackson, Marshall	15 min
Jul 21, 5:19 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Dade, Walker	26 min
Jul 21, 5:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Calhoun, Etowah	44 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

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 6.8 hours before the alert went out and 179 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: 2335 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -14 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 677 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 28 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

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
Jul 21, 1:10 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Etowah, Franklin and 9 more	95 min
Jul 21, 3:14 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Colbert and 23 more	2 hr
Jul 21, 6:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Autauga, Bibb, Calhoun, Chambers, Chilton, Choctaw and 18 more	5 hr

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Alabama, 2003 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Mississippi, 2003 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Georgia, 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.