Alert archive / Illinois / Tornado Watches in 2003

Tornado Watch 275

May 6, 20034 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 6, 2003, 5:40 PM CDT for 4 states. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 6, 2003, 5:40 PM CDT (22:40 UTC)
Expired: May 7, 2003, 12:00 AM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 76 counties

Alexander County, IL, Bond County, IL, Clay County, IL, Clinton County, IL, Crawford County, IL, Edwards County, IL, Effingham County, IL, Fayette County, IL, Franklin County, IL, Gallatin County, IL, Hamilton County, IL, Hardin County, IL, Jackson County, IL, Jasper County, IL, Jefferson County, IL, Johnson County, IL, Lawrence County, IL, Madison County, IL, Marion County, IL, Massac County, IL, Monroe County, IL, Perry County, IL, Pope County, IL, Pulaski County, IL, Randolph County, IL, Richland County, IL, Saint Clair County, IL, Saline County, IL, Union County, IL, Wabash County, IL, Washington County, IL, Wayne County, IL, White County, IL, Williamson County, IL, Gibson County, IN, Knox County, IN, Pike County, IN, Posey County, IN, Sullivan County, IN, Vanderburgh County, IN, Warrick County, IN, Ballard County, KY, Caldwell County, KY, Carlisle County, KY, Christian County, KY, Crittenden County, KY, Graves County, KY, Henderson County, KY, Hickman County, KY, Hopkins County, KY, Livingston County, KY, Lyon County, KY, Marshall County, KY, McCracken County, KY, McLean County, KY, Todd County, KY, Trigg County, KY, Union County, KY, Webster County, KY, Bollinger County, MO, Butler County, MO, Cape Girardeau County, MO, City of Saint Louis, MO, Iron County, MO, Jefferson County, MO, Madison County, MO, Mississippi County, MO, Perry County, MO, Ripley County, MO, Saint Charles County, MO, Saint Francois County, MO, Saint Louis County, MO, Sainte Genevieve County, MO, Scott County, MO, Stoddard County, MO, Wayne County, MO

The radar

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 126 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:39 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

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 6, 6:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Saint Charles, Warren	42 min
May 6, 6:37 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Jefferson	53 min
May 6, 6:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Saint Louis, City of Saint Louis	63 min
May 6, 7:16 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Franklin, Jefferson	59 min
May 6, 7:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Sainte Genevieve, Saint Francois	50 min
May 6, 7:38 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Sainte Genevieve, Saint Francois	52 min
May 6, 7:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Bollinger	46 min
May 6, 7:46 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Monroe	59 min
May 6, 7:53 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Randolph	52 min
May 6, 7:55 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LSX	Monroe	4 hr
May 6, 8:00 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Sainte Genevieve	45 min
May 6, 8:06 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Saint Clair	54 min
May 6, 8:07 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Iron, Madison, Saint Francois	38 min
May 6, 8:08 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Bollinger	22 min
May 6, 8:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Cape Girardeau	44 min
May 6, 8:16 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Perry	44 min
May 6, 8:21 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Cape Girardeau	39 min
May 6, 8:26 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Bollinger	34 min
May 6, 8:33 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Alexander	42 min
May 6, 8:35 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Washington	55 min
May 6, 8:41 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Randolph	49 min
May 6, 8:45 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Jackson, Perry	45 min
May 6, 8:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LSX	Iron, Madison, Reynolds	59 min
May 6, 8:55 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Pulaski, Union	50 min
May 6, 8:56 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Cape Girardeau	19 min
May 6, 8:58 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Perry	32 min
May 6, 9:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Wayne	42 min
May 6, 9:12 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Alexander	13 min
May 6, 9:24 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LSX	Washington	36 min
May 6, 9:27 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Jackson, Perry	33 min
May 6, 9:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Johnson	47 min
May 6, 9:33 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Massac	42 min
May 6, 9:37 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Jefferson	23 min
May 6, 9:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Franklin	36 min
May 6, 9:42 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Union	48 min
May 6, 9:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Bollinger	31 min
May 6, 9:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	McCracken	42 min
May 6, 9:56 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	PAH	Perry	3 hr
May 6, 9:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Pope	49 min
May 6, 9:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Jefferson	31 min
May 6, 10:02 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Cape Girardeau	43 min
May 6, 10:05 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Pope	55 min
May 6, 10:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Scott	51 min
May 6, 10:12 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Massac	8 min
May 6, 10:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Johnson	12 min
May 6, 10:20 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	PAH	Franklin, Jackson, Jefferson, Union	3 hr
May 6, 10:24 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Scott	36 min
May 6, 10:26 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Johnson, Pulaski	49 min
May 6, 10:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Wayne	29 min
May 6, 10:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Union	12 min
May 6, 10:36 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Massac	39 min
May 6, 10:45 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Hardin	45 min
May 6, 10:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Ballard, Carlisle, Graves, Hickman, McCracken	54 min
May 6, 10:54 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Ballard	51 min
May 6, 10:59 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Pope	46 min
May 6, 11:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Massac	37 min
May 6, 11:09 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Graves, McCracken	36 min
May 6, 11:16 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Gallatin	44 min
May 6, 11:21 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Livingston	39 min
May 6, 11:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PAH	Marshall	39 min
May 6, 11:40 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	PAH	Johnson, Massac, Pope	4 hr
May 6, 11:47 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Marshall	28 min
May 6, 11:48 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Caldwell, Crittenden	27 min
May 6, 11:55 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	ILX	Clay, Crawford, Lawrence, Richland	4 hr
May 6, 11:59 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	PAH	Henderson	61 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, 10.7 hours before the alert went out and 330 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 862 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 122 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 102 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 5, 10:58 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alexander, Edwards, Franklin, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin and 9 more	2 hr
May 6, 9:37 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bond, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Crawford, Cumberland and 15 more	113 min
May 6, 11:55 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Bond, Clay, Clinton, Crawford, Edwards, Effingham and 21 more	4 hr
May 6, 1:23 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bond, Clay, Clinton, Crawford, Edwards, Effingham and 17 more	2 hr
May 6, 5:08 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Fayette, Jackson, Jefferson and 9 more	2 hr
May 6, 5:33 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Fayette, Jackson, Jefferson and 9 more	117 min
May 6, 10:55 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Crawford, Dearborn, Decatur and 23 more	2 hr
May 6, 12:45 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barren, Breckinridge, Bullitt, Butler, Casey, Daviess and 20 more	2 hr
May 6, 1:50 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Dunklin, Pemiscot	6 hr
May 6, 6:49 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barton, Bates, Benton, Caldwell, Camden, Carroll and 27 more	3 hr
May 6, 7:55 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Barton, Bates, Benton, Camden, Cass, Cedar and 22 more	5 hr
May 6, 10:32 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	McDonald	118 min
May 6, 11:29 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barton, Bates, Benton, Cass, Cedar, Clay and 18 more	2 hr
May 6, 11:40 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barry, Barton, Bates, Benton, Cass, Cedar and 20 more	7 hr
May 6, 2:15 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Boone, Callaway, Camden, Carter, Cole, Cooper and 27 more	5 hr
May 6, 3:42 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barton, Bates, Benton, Boone, Callaway, Camden and 20 more	2 hr
May 6, 6:35 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barry, Barton, Camden, Carter, Cedar, Christian and 31 more	5 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Illinois, 2003 Tornado Watches in Kentucky, 2003 Tornado Watches in Missouri, 2003 Every tornado 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.