Alert archive / Alabama / Mesoscale Discussions in 2008

Mesoscale Discussion 876

May 10, 200821 counties in Alabama; 6 counties in Georgia; 5 counties in Tennessee

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at May 10, 2008, 11:32 PM CDT for 21 counties in Alabama; 6 counties in Georgia; 5 counties in Tennessee. It was in force for 118 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 10, 2008, 11:32 PM CDT (04:32 UTC)
Expired: May 11, 2008, 1:30 AM CDT
In force: 118 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 32 counties

Blount County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Cherokee County, AL, Cleburne County, AL, Colbert County, AL, Cullman County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Franklin County, AL, Jackson County, AL, Jefferson County, AL, Lauderdale County, AL, Lawrence County, AL, Limestone County, AL, Madison County, AL, Marshall County, AL, Morgan County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Walker County, AL, Winston County, AL, Chattooga County, GA, Dade County, GA, Floyd County, GA, Haralson County, GA, Polk County, GA, Walker County, GA, Franklin County, TN, Giles County, TN, Lawrence County, TN, Lincoln County, TN, Moore County, TN

The radar

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 66 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 04:31 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 304May 11, 1:35 AM CDT

The nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 00:00Z, 4.5 hours before the alert went out and 145 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: 2301 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -22 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 691 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 59 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 136 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 163 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.5
Supercell composite: 5.5

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
May 10, 7:08 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Colbert and 23 more	7 hr
May 10, 9:21 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Colbert, Cullman, Etowah, Fayette, Franklin and 12 more	84 min
May 11, 1:06 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Autauga, Bibb, Blount, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee and 32 more	84 min
May 11, 1:37 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Calhoun and 33 more	7 hr
May 11, 3:40 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Chambers, Chilton and 14 more	95 min
May 11, 4:52 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston	8 hr
May 11, 6:24 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barbour, Bullock, Chambers, Clay, Coosa, Dale and 9 more	96 min
May 11, 7:51 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barbour, Chambers, Dale, Henry, Houston, Lee and 1 more	84 min
May 10, 7:14 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Appling, Baldwin, Bibb, Bleckley, Bryan, Bulloch and 77 more	2 hr
May 10, 8:54 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Appling, Bacon, Baldwin, Ben Hill, Bibb, Bleckley and 88 more	96 min
May 10, 9:06 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Appling, Bacon, Baldwin, Banks, Barrow, Bartow and 112 more	7 hr
May 11, 4:38 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks and 27 more	67 min
May 11, 5:13 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Baldwin, Ben Hill and 62 more	92 min
May 11, 11:15 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atkinson, Baker, Berrien, Brooks, Calhoun, Camden and 21 more	60 min
May 11, 1:24 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks and 20 more	66 min
May 11, 1:42 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley and 29 more	5 hr
May 11, 3:43 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atkinson, Bacon, Brantley, Brooks, Bryan, Camden and 15 more	2 hr
May 11, 6:06 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bryan, Chatham, Effingham, Liberty, Long, McIntosh	84 min
May 10, 7:36 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Fayette, Hardeman, Haywood, Madison, Shelby, Tipton	54 min
May 11, 8:34 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Carter, Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Greene and 11 more	26 min
May 11, 8:52 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Anderson, Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Carter, Claiborne and 18 more	6 hr
May 11, 10:10 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Greene, Hawkins, Sullivan, Washington	95 min
May 11, 1:33 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Carter, Johnson	57 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Alabama, 2008 Mesoscale Discussions in Georgia, 2008 Mesoscale Discussions in Tennessee, 2008 Every mesoscale discussion in 2008

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.