Alert archive / Mississippi / Tornado Watches in 2007

Tornado Watch 222

May 3, 20078 counties in Arkansas; East Carroll Parish, Louisiana; 21 counties in Mississippi

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 3, 2007, 5:38 PM CDT for 8 counties in Arkansas; East Carroll Parish, Louisiana; 21 counties in Mississippi. It was in force for 3 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued
May 3, 2007, 5:38 PM CDT (22:38 UTC)
Expired
May 3, 2007, 9:07 PM CDT
In force
3 hr
Issued by
the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected
1.5 in
Strongest gust expected
70 kt
All 30 counties

Arkansas County, AR, Chicot County, AR, Desha County, AR, Drew County, AR, Lee County, AR, Lincoln County, AR, Monroe County, AR, Phillips County, AR, East Carroll Parish, LA, Bolivar County, MS, Carroll County, MS, Coahoma County, MS, DeSoto County, MS, Grenada County, MS, Holmes County, MS, Humphreys County, MS, Issaquena County, MS, Lafayette County, MS, Leflore County, MS, Marshall County, MS, Panola County, MS, Quitman County, MS, Sharkey County, MS, Sunflower County, MS, Tallahatchie County, MS, Tate County, MS, Tunica County, MS, Washington County, MS, Yalobusha County, MS, Yazoo County, MS

The radar

The Memphis radar (KNQA), 177 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:38 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.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes
50%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
20%
Ten or more severe wind reports
40%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
30%
Ten or more severe hail reports
20%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
10%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
70%

Warnings issued inside it

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

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 3, 5:41 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningJANIssaquena, Sharkey, Washington64 min
May 3, 5:47 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningJANLeflore, Sunflower43 min
May 3, 5:54 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLZKDesha66 min
May 3, 6:22 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningJANSunflower53 min
May 3, 6:23 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEGTallahatchie52 min
May 3, 6:28 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningJANHumphreys43 min
May 3, 6:58 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningJANLeflore20 min
May 3, 7:17 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMEGCoahoma43 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

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), launched 12:00Z, 10.6 hours before the alert went out and 122 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-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2007-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 0 joules per kilogram.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 2007-05-03The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 40 square meters per square second.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
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
937 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
40 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
131 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.

000
WWUS20 KWNS 032239
SEL2  
SPC WW 032239
ARZ000-LAZ000-MSZ000-040300-

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 222
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
540 PM CDT THU MAY 3 2007

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF 

       SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS
       EXTREME NORTHEAST LOUISIANA
       WEST-CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST MISSISSIPPI

EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING FROM 540 PM UNTIL
1000 PM CDT.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 1.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND
GUSTS TO 80 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE
AREAS.

THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 45 STATUTE
MILES EAST AND WEST OF A LINE FROM 40 MILES NORTHWEST OF OXFORD
MISSISSIPPI TO 70 MILES SOUTH OF GREENVILLE MISSISSIPPI.  FOR A
COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE THE ASSOCIATED WATCH OUTLINE
UPDATE (WOUS64 KWNS WOU2).

REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR
TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH
AREA. PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR
THREATENING WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS
AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS.

OTHER WATCH INFORMATION...CONTINUE...WW 218...WW 219...WW
220...WW 221...

DISCUSSION...WELL-ORGANIZED MCS CONTINUES TO EVOLVE ACROSS SERN AR
AND NERN LA ALONG SERN PERIPHERY OF EARLY DAY MCS.  DOWNSTREAM AIR
MASS HAS BECOME UNSTABLE WITH MLCAPES OF 1000-1500 J/KG.  UPSTREAM
VWP FROM SHV SHOWED 40-50 KT FLOW IN THE MID-LEVELS...INDICATIVE OF
A POTENTIAL FOR DAMAGING WIND GUSTS AS THE MCS MOVES ENEWD INTO THE
REMAINDER OF SOUTHEAST AR AND WESTERN/NORTHWESTERN MS.  TORNADOES
WILL REMAIN POSSIBLE...ESPECIALLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE MATURE BOW
ECHOES.

AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 1.5 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE
WIND GUSTS TO 70 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO
500. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 24040.


...RACY/CORFIDI

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 2, 7:24 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCColumbia, Lafayette, Miller96 min
May 2, 7:59 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCColumbia, Hempstead, Howard, Lafayette, Little River, Miller and 2 more7 hr
May 2, 11:09 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCColumbia, Hempstead, Howard, Lafayette, Little River, Miller and 1 more96 min
May 3, 4:46 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAshley, Chicot59 min
May 3, 1:21 AM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCBienville, Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, De Soto, Grant and 8 more84 min
May 3, 11:27 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WatchSPCAscension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Jefferson and 14 more4 hr
May 3, 3:08 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCAllen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, De Soto, Grant and 6 more7 hr
May 3, 6:27 PM CDTTornado WatchSPCAvoyelles, Caldwell, Catahoula, Concordia, Franklin, LaSalle and 3 more4 hr
May 3, 6:34 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAllen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, De Soto, Grant and 4 more116 min
May 3, 3:22 PM CDTMesoscale DiscussionSPCAttala, Choctaw, Clay, Jasper, Kemper, Lauderdale and 10 more53 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Mississippi, 2007Tornado Watches in Arkansas, 2007Tornado Watches in Louisiana, 2007Every tornado watch in 2007

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.