Alert archive / Georgia / Tornado Watches in 2008

Tornado Watch 305

May 11, 20085 counties in Alabama; 22 counties in Florida; 40 counties in Georgia

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 11, 2008, 4:52 AM CDT for 5 counties in Alabama; 22 counties in Florida; 40 counties in Georgia. It was in force for 8 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 11, 2008, 4:52 AM CDT (09:52 UTC)
Expired: May 11, 2008, 1:00 PM CDT
In force: 8 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 67 counties

Coffee County, AL, Dale County, AL, Geneva County, AL, Henry County, AL, Houston County, AL, Baker County, FL, Bay County, FL, Calhoun County, FL, Columbia County, FL, Duval County, FL, Franklin County, FL, Gadsden County, FL, Gulf County, FL, Hamilton County, FL, Holmes County, FL, Jackson County, FL, Jefferson County, FL, Lafayette County, FL, Leon County, FL, Liberty County, FL, Madison County, FL, Nassau County, FL, Suwannee County, FL, Taylor County, FL, Wakulla County, FL, Walton County, FL, Washington County, FL, Appling County, GA, Atkinson County, GA, Bacon County, GA, Baker County, GA, Ben Hill County, GA, Berrien County, GA, Brantley County, GA, Brooks County, GA, Calhoun County, GA, Camden County, GA, Charlton County, GA, Clay County, GA, Clinch County, GA, Coffee County, GA, Colquitt County, GA, Cook County, GA, Decatur County, GA, Dougherty County, GA, Early County, GA, Echols County, GA, Glynn County, GA, Grady County, GA, Irwin County, GA, Jeff Davis County, GA, Lanier County, GA, Lee County, GA, Lowndes County, GA, Miller County, GA, Mitchell County, GA, Pierce County, GA, Quitman County, GA, Randolph County, GA, Seminole County, GA, Terrell County, GA, Thomas County, GA, Tift County, GA, Turner County, GA, Ware County, GA, Wayne County, GA, Worth County, GA

The radar

The Tallahassee radar (KTLH), 81 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 09:54 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: 40%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 30%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 30%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 40%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 30%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 70%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 11, 6:25 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	TAE	Lee	50 min
May 11, 6:34 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Appling, Jeff Davis	36 min
May 11, 6:38 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TAE	Worth	37 min
May 11, 6:57 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	JAX	Bacon, Coffee, Jeff Davis	48 min
May 11, 7:02 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Coffee, Jeff Davis, Ware	43 min
May 11, 7:06 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TAE	Turner	24 min
May 11, 7:07 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	JAX	Appling, Bacon, Jeff Davis, Wayne	38 min
May 11, 7:14 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TAE	Ben Hill	46 min
May 11, 7:34 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Appling, Pierce, Wayne	41 min
May 11, 7:44 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TAE	Lee, Worth	46 min
May 11, 7:46 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Appling, Bacon, Coffee, Jeff Davis, Ware, Wayne	44 min
May 11, 7:55 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TAE	Turner	50 min
May 11, 8:04 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	JAX	Coffee, Jeff Davis	41 min
May 11, 8:09 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	JAX	Wayne	26 min
May 11, 8:14 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Appling, Bacon, Brantley, Camden, Glynn, Pierce and 2 more	46 min
May 11, 8:30 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	TAE	Ben Hill, Irwin	31 min
May 11, 8:31 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Appling, Bacon, Coffee, Jeff Davis, Ware, Wayne	29 min
May 11, 8:53 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Brantley, Camden, Glynn, Wayne	52 min
May 11, 8:57 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Appling, Bacon, Brantley, Coffee, Pierce, Ware and 1 more	27 min
May 11, 8:59 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Bacon, Coffee, Jeff Davis	31 min
May 11, 9:16 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	JAX	Wayne	29 min
May 11, 9:23 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	JAX	Brantley, Pierce	23 min
May 11, 9:45 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	JAX	Brantley, Camden, Glynn, Wayne	30 min
May 11, 10:10 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	JAX	Glynn	35 min
May 11, 11:51 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Appling, Bacon, Coffee, Jeff Davis	24 min
May 11, 12:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Appling, Bacon, Pierce, Wayne	27 min
May 11, 12:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAX	Wayne	32 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

Tallahassee Rgnl, FL (KTLH), launched 00:00Z, 9.9 hours before the alert went out and 81 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: 1352 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -25 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1258 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 45 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 97 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.3
Supercell composite: 4.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 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, 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 11, 4:38 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Gadsden and 12 more	67 min
May 11, 11:15 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval and 14 more	60 min
May 11, 1:24 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baker, Bradford, Calhoun, Clay, Columbia, Duval and 13 more	66 min
May 11, 1:42 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Baker, Columbia, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Nassau and 1 more	5 hr
May 11, 3:43 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Nassau	2 hr
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, 5:13 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Baldwin, Ben Hill and 62 more	92 min
May 11, 6:06 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bryan, Chatham, Effingham, Liberty, Long, McIntosh	84 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Georgia, 2008 Tornado Watches in Florida, 2008 Tornado Watches in Alabama, 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.