Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Watches in 2008

Tornado Watch 300

May 10, 200829 counties in Alabama; 14 counties in Tennessee

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 10, 2008, 7:08 PM CDT for 29 counties in Alabama; 14 counties in Tennessee. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 10, 2008, 7:08 PM CDT (00:08 UTC)
Expired: May 11, 2008, 2:00 AM CDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 70 kt

All 43 counties

Blount County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Cherokee County, AL, Clay County, AL, Cleburne County, AL, Colbert County, AL, Cullman County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Fayette County, AL, Franklin County, AL, Jackson County, AL, Jefferson 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, Pickens County, AL, Randolph County, AL, Shelby County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Walker County, AL, Winston County, AL, Bedford County, TN, Coffee County, TN, Franklin County, TN, Giles County, TN, Grundy County, TN, Hickman County, TN, Lawrence County, TN, Lewis County, TN, Lincoln County, TN, Marshall County, TN, Maury County, TN, Moore County, TN, Perry County, TN, Wayne County, TN

The radar

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 92 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:09 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: 70%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 50%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 70%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 50%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 10, 9:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Perry, Wayne	44 min
May 10, 9:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Wayne	23 min
May 10, 9:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Lawrence	32 min
May 10, 9:41 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Lawrence, Wayne	34 min
May 10, 9:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Giles, Lawrence	34 min
May 10, 10:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Giles	32 min
May 10, 10:44 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HUN	Colbert, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone	61 min
May 10, 10:50 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Franklin, Lawrence	55 min
May 10, 10:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Wayne	39 min
May 10, 10:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette, Lamar, Marion, Walker, Winston	65 min
May 10, 11:02 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Lincoln, Moore	43 min
May 10, 11:02 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OHX	Wayne	43 min
May 10, 11:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Marshall	19 min
May 10, 11:20 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Marion	40 min
May 10, 11:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Jackson	23 min
May 10, 11:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Lawrence	35 min
May 10, 11:27 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	HUN	Lincoln, Moore	2 hr
May 10, 11:31 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OHX	Lawrence, Wayne	44 min
May 10, 11:44 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Marion, Winston	61 min
May 10, 11:44 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	HUN	Lauderdale, Limestone, Madison	46 min
May 10, 11:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Moore	31 min
May 10, 11:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Franklin, Lawrence, Limestone, Morgan	42 min
May 10, 11:54 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Blount, Fayette, Jefferson, Tuscaloosa, Walker	36 min
May 10, 11:57 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	OHX	Giles	37 min
May 10, 11:58 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette, Walker, Winston	32 min
May 11, 12:04 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	HUN	Cullman	41 min
May 11, 12:06 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Franklin	15 min
May 11, 12:11 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Jefferson, Shelby	36 min
May 11, 12:15 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Coffee	15 min
May 11, 12:21 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Blount, Fayette, Jefferson, Walker, Winston	39 min
May 11, 12:26 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Blount, Jefferson, St. Clair, Walker, Winston	49 min
May 11, 12:27 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Jackson, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, Morgan	63 min
May 11, 12:35 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Chilton, Clay, Coosa, St. Clair, Shelby, Talladega	40 min
May 11, 12:38 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette, Lamar, Marion, Walker	52 min
May 11, 12:40 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	HUN	Cullman	35 min
May 11, 12:45 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	HUN	Madison, Marshall, Morgan	27 min
May 11, 12:51 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Blount, Walker	39 min
May 11, 12:53 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Fayette, Lamar	52 min
May 11, 12:59 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette, Jefferson, Walker	46 min
May 11, 1:08 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	DeKalb, Marshall	32 min
May 11, 1:18 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Blount, Calhoun, Etowah, Jefferson, St. Clair, Talladega	42 min
May 11, 1:29 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette, Lamar, Tuscaloosa, Walker	46 min
May 11, 1:32 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Chilton, Clay, Coosa, Shelby, Talladega, Tallapoosa	43 min
May 11, 1:44 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Chambers, Lee, Randolph, Tallapoosa	46 min
May 11, 1:49 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Jefferson, Shelby	41 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 00:00Z, 0.1 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: 85 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -216 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1322 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 140 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
May 10, 9:21 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Colbert, Cullman, Etowah, Fayette, Franklin and 12 more	84 min
May 10, 11:32 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Cleburne, Colbert, Cullman and 15 more	118 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

Tornado Watches in Alabama, 2008 Tornado Watches in Tennessee, 2008 Every tornado watch 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.