Alert archive / Tennessee / Tornado Watches in 2008

Tornado Watch 306

May 11, 20086 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 11, 2008, 9:52 AM EDT for 6 states. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 11, 2008, 9:52 AM EDT (13:52 UTC)
Expired: May 11, 2008, 4:00 PM EDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 70 kt

All 98 counties

Bell County, KY, Boyd County, KY, Breathitt County, KY, Carter County, KY, Clay County, KY, Elliott County, KY, Floyd County, KY, Greenup County, KY, Harlan County, KY, Johnson County, KY, Knott County, KY, Knox County, KY, Lawrence County, KY, Leslie County, KY, Letcher County, KY, Magoffin County, KY, Martin County, KY, Morgan County, KY, Owsley County, KY, Perry County, KY, Pike County, KY, Whitley County, KY, Wolfe County, KY, Avery County, NC, Buncombe County, NC, Cherokee County, NC, Clay County, NC, Graham County, NC, Haywood County, NC, Henderson County, NC, Jackson County, NC, Macon County, NC, Madison County, NC, Mitchell County, NC, Swain County, NC, Transylvania County, NC, Yancey County, NC, Gallia County, OH, Jackson County, OH, Lawrence County, OH, Meigs County, OH, Anderson County, TN, Blount County, TN, Bradley County, TN, Campbell County, TN, Carter County, TN, Claiborne County, TN, Cocke County, TN, Grainger County, TN, Greene County, TN, Hamblen County, TN, Hancock County, TN, Hawkins County, TN, Jefferson County, TN, Johnson County, TN, Knox County, TN, Loudon County, TN, McMinn County, TN, Monroe County, TN, Polk County, TN, Sevier County, TN, Sullivan County, TN, Unicoi County, TN, Union County, TN, Washington County, TN, Buchanan County, VA, City of Bristol, VA, City of Norton, VA, Dickenson County, VA, Lee County, VA, Russell County, VA, Scott County, VA, Smyth County, VA, Tazewell County, VA, Washington County, VA, Wise County, VA, Boone County, WV, Braxton County, WV, Cabell County, WV, Calhoun County, WV, Clay County, WV, Fayette County, WV, Gilmer County, WV, Jackson County, WV, Kanawha County, WV, Lewis County, WV, Lincoln County, WV, Logan County, WV, Mason County, WV, McDowell County, WV, Mingo County, WV, Nicholas County, WV, Putnam County, WV, Raleigh County, WV, Roane County, WV, Wayne County, WV, Wirt County, WV, Wyoming County, WV

The radar

The Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 53 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 13:53 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: 30%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 50%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 50%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 30%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 20%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 11, 10:01 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	JKL	Clay, Leslie, Perry	29 min
May 11, 10:02 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Lawrence	43 min
May 11, 10:13 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Elliott, Johnson, Magoffin, Menifee, Morgan, Rowan and 1 more	47 min
May 11, 10:13 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Boyd, Carter, Greenup	62 min
May 11, 10:14 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Breathitt, Knott, Magoffin, Perry	31 min
May 11, 10:26 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	JKL	Breathitt, Floyd, Knott, Magoffin, Perry, Pike	34 min
May 11, 10:30 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Bell, Harlan, Leslie, Letcher, Perry	30 min
May 11, 10:36 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Boyd, Carter, Lawrence	54 min
May 11, 10:37 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Floyd, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Perry	38 min
May 11, 10:42 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin, Martin	33 min
May 11, 10:53 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Johnson	19 min
May 11, 10:54 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	JKL	Harlan, Letcher	36 min
May 11, 10:58 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	JKL	Floyd, Knott, Letcher, Pike	47 min
May 11, 11:01 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	JKL	Floyd, Martin, Pike	29 min
May 11, 11:04 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Lincoln, Logan, Mingo, Wayne	56 min
May 11, 11:06 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Martin	24 min
May 11, 11:15 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Lawrence	60 min
May 11, 11:16 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MRX	Lee, Wise	29 min
May 11, 11:26 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	RLX	Mingo	24 min
May 11, 11:28 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JKL	Pike	17 min
May 11, 11:35 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Boone, Cabell, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Mason and 4 more	55 min
May 11, 11:55 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Boone, Braxton, Calhoun, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha and 2 more	65 min
May 11, 12:29 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Grayson, Smyth, Wythe	46 min
May 11, 12:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Bland, Giles, Smyth, Tazewell, Wythe	45 min
May 11, 1:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Mingo, Wayne	29 min
May 11, 1:23 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Boyd	39 min
May 11, 1:40 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Boone, Lincoln, Logan, Mingo	35 min
May 11, 2:09 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	Boone, Logan	36 min
May 11, 2:43 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	McDowell, Wyoming	32 min
May 11, 3:33 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RLX	McDowell, Wyoming	27 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

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), launched 12:00Z, 1.9 hours before the alert went out and 246 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: 19 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -136 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 652 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 75 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 68 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

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, 8:14 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hickman and 3 more	5 hr
May 10, 9:50 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ballard, Carlisle, McCracken	85 min
May 11, 6:35 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adair, Anderson, Barren, Boone, Bourbon, Boyle and 44 more	115 min
May 11, 9:34 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bell, Boyd, Breathitt, Carter, Elliott, Floyd and 13 more	26 min
May 11, 11:10 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Pike	95 min
May 11, 1:39 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Anson, Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick and 49 more	2 hr
May 11, 2:07 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Alamance, Alexander, Anson, Bladen, Cabarrus, Caswell and 43 more	6 hr
May 11, 2:33 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ashe, Watauga	57 min
May 11, 4:18 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Beaufort, Bertie, Chatham, Chowan, Cumberland and 26 more	87 min
May 11, 4:43 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret and 23 more	6 hr
May 11, 7:30 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan and 20 more	90 min
May 11, 7:47 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Alamance, Anson, Chatham, Cumberland, Davidson, Durham and 20 more	3 hr
May 11, 1:33 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ashland, Athens, Belmont, Carroll, Coshocton, Crawford and 27 more	117 min
May 10, 8:08 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bedford, Coffee, Franklin, Giles, Grundy, Hickman and 8 more	7 hr
May 10, 8:36 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Fayette, Hardeman, Haywood, Madison, Shelby, Tipton	54 min
May 10, 10:06 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bradley, Hamilton, Marion, Sequatchie	7 hr
May 10, 10:21 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Chester, Decatur, Fayette, Giles, Hardeman, Hardin and 12 more	84 min
May 11, 12:32 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Franklin, Giles, Lawrence, Lincoln, Moore	118 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Tennessee, 2008 Tornado Watches in Kentucky, 2008 Tornado Watches in West Virginia, 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.