Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Watches in 2008

Tornado Watch 326

May 15, 200817 counties in Alabama; 10 counties in Florida; 11 counties in Mississippi

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 15, 2008, 8:58 AM CDT for 17 counties in Alabama; 10 counties in Florida; 11 counties in Mississippi. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 15, 2008, 8:58 AM CDT (13:58 UTC)
Expired: May 15, 2008, 3:00 PM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 38 counties

Baldwin County, AL, Butler County, AL, Choctaw County, AL, Clarke County, AL, Coffee County, AL, Conecuh County, AL, Covington County, AL, Crenshaw County, AL, Dale County, AL, Escambia County, AL, Geneva County, AL, Henry County, AL, Houston County, AL, Mobile County, AL, Monroe County, AL, Washington County, AL, Wilcox County, AL, Bay County, FL, Calhoun County, FL, Escambia County, FL, Gulf County, FL, Holmes County, FL, Jackson County, FL, Okaloosa County, FL, Santa Rosa County, FL, Walton County, FL, Washington County, FL, Forrest County, MS, George County, MS, Greene County, MS, Hancock County, MS, Harrison County, MS, Jackson County, MS, Lamar County, MS, Pearl River County, MS, Perry County, MS, Stone County, MS, Wayne County, MS

The radar

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 56 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 13:59 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.

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 15, 9:03 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Lamar, Marion	57 min
May 15, 9:04 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LIX	Hancock, Pearl River	56 min
May 15, 9:20 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LIX	Harrison	40 min
May 15, 9:31 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	LIX	Pearl River	29 min
May 15, 9:41 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	JAN	Forrest, Lamar, Marion	49 min
May 15, 9:58 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	JAN	Forrest, Lamar, Marion	102 min
May 15, 9:58 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LIX	Harrison, Jackson	32 min
May 15, 10:24 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Perry, Wayne	51 min
May 15, 10:27 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Greene, Perry, Wayne	48 min
May 15, 10:28 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LIX	Jackson	32 min
May 15, 10:38 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Baldwin, Mobile	67 min
May 15, 11:01 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Conecuh, Covington, Crenshaw, Escambia	59 min
May 15, 11:06 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Baldwin, Escambia	24 min
May 15, 11:10 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Covington, Escambia	52 min
May 15, 11:10 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Monroe	23 min
May 15, 11:19 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Choctaw, Clarke, Washington	41 min
May 15, 11:36 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Baldwin, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, Monroe	39 min
May 15, 11:42 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Covington, Crenshaw	48 min
May 15, 11:49 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Baldwin	41 min
May 15, 11:51 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Conecuh, Covington, Escambia	39 min
May 15, 12:00 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Covington, Crenshaw	45 min
May 15, 12:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Monroe, Wilcox	31 min
May 15, 12:15 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Escambia	45 min
May 15, 12:17 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Butler, Conecuh, Escambia, Monroe	43 min
May 15, 12:30 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Butler, Conecuh, Covington, Crenshaw	45 min
May 15, 12:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa	44 min
May 15, 12:35 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Okaloosa, Santa Rosa	40 min
May 15, 12:48 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Butler, Crenshaw	28 min
May 15, 12:50 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Covington, Escambia	40 min
May 15, 1:15 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MOB	Crenshaw	19 min
May 15, 1:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Covington	38 min
May 15, 1:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TAE	Walton	42 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

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), launched 12:00Z, 2.0 hours before the alert went out and 202 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: 1782 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -23 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 501 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 197 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 217 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.3
Supercell composite: 8.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 15, 7:41 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baldwin, Choctaw, Clarke, Escambia, Marengo, Mobile and 4 more	94 min
May 15, 8:42 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baldwin, Choctaw, Clarke, Escambia, Marengo, Mobile and 4 more	63 min
May 15, 12:28 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baldwin, Choctaw, Clarke, Coffee, Conecuh, Covington and 8 more	92 min
May 15, 2:11 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Wilkinson	94 min
May 15, 4:16 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Adams, Amite, Attala, Bolivar, Carroll, Choctaw and 29 more	7 hr
May 15, 5:54 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Amite, Attala, Carroll, Claiborne, Copiah and 26 more	96 min

Nearby

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