Alert archive / Alabama / Mesoscale Discussions in 2004

Mesoscale Discussion 2338

October 19, 200426 counties in Alabama; 26 counties in Mississippi

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Oct 19, 2004, 1:15 PM CDT for 26 counties in Alabama; 26 counties in Mississippi. It was in force for 90 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Oct 19, 2004, 1:15 PM CDT (18:15 UTC)
Expired: Oct 19, 2004, 2:45 PM CDT
In force: 90 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 52 counties

Autauga County, AL, Bibb County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Chambers County, AL, Chilton County, AL, Clay County, AL, Cleburne County, AL, Coosa County, AL, Elmore County, AL, Fayette County, AL, Greene County, AL, Hale County, AL, Jefferson County, AL, Lamar County, AL, Lee County, AL, Macon County, AL, Perry County, AL, Pickens County, AL, Randolph County, AL, Shelby County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Sumter County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tallapoosa County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Walker County, AL, Attala County, MS, Calhoun County, MS, Carroll County, MS, Chickasaw County, MS, Choctaw County, MS, Clay County, MS, Coahoma County, MS, Grenada County, MS, Holmes County, MS, Humphreys County, MS, Kemper County, MS, Leflore County, MS, Lowndes County, MS, Monroe County, MS, Montgomery County, MS, Neshoba County, MS, Noxubee County, MS, Oktibbeha County, MS, Panola County, MS, Pontotoc County, MS, Quitman County, MS, Sunflower County, MS, Tallahatchie County, MS, Webster County, MS, Winston County, MS, Yalobusha County, MS

The radar

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 42 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:17 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.

The watches that followed

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

Tornado Watch 867Oct 19, 3:30 PM CDT

The nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 6.3 hours before the alert went out and 175 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: 1233 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -18 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 574 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 48 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 123 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.7
Supercell composite: 4.3

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
Oct 18, 7:10 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Colbert, Fayette, Franklin, Greene, Hale, Lamar and 8 more	4 hr
Oct 18, 10:33 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Colbert, Franklin, Lauderdale, Limestone	117 min
Oct 18, 10:55 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Colbert, Franklin, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison and 1 more	5 hr
Oct 19, 2:04 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Colbert, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone and 2 more	86 min
Oct 19, 3:34 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Colbert, DeKalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence and 4 more	26 min
Oct 19, 3:50 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Cherokee, Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Etowah, Franklin and 9 more	4 hr
Oct 19, 7:08 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cherokee, Cullman, DeKalb, Etowah, Franklin, Jackson and 6 more	2 hr
Oct 19, 9:05 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Autauga, Bibb, Calhoun, Chambers, Chilton, Clay and 20 more	7 hr
Oct 19, 11:06 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barbour, Butler, Choctaw, Clarke, Coffee, Conecuh and 10 more	84 min
Oct 19, 12:00 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Choctaw, Clarke, Coffee and 16 more	7 hr
Oct 19, 3:08 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Butler, Calhoun and 43 more	67 min
Oct 19, 3:30 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Autauga, Bibb, Chilton, Clay, Coosa, Dallas and 16 more	6 hr
Oct 19, 5:48 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Butler, Choctaw, Clarke, Coffee, Conecuh, Covington and 13 more	117 min
Oct 19, 6:20 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barbour, Butler, Choctaw, Clarke, Coffee, Conecuh and 16 more	4 hr
Oct 18, 9:09 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alcorn, Benton	2 hr
Oct 19, 1:35 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Amite, Franklin, Hancock, Issaquena, Jefferson and 3 more	2 hr

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Alabama, 2004 Mesoscale Discussions in Mississippi, 2004 Every mesoscale discussion in 2004

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.