Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Watches in 2008
Tornado Watch 947
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Dec 9, 2008, 8:03 PM CST for 24 counties in Alabama; Saint Tammany Parish, Louisiana; 13 counties in Mississippi. It was in force for 6 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Dec 9, 2008, 8:03 PM CST (02:03 UTC)
- Expired
- Dec 10, 2008, 1:44 AM CST
- In force
- 6 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 1.5 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 38 counties
Baldwin County, AL, Bibb County, AL, Blount County, AL, Choctaw County, AL, Clarke County, AL, Dallas County, AL, Fayette County, AL, Greene County, AL, Hale County, AL, Jefferson County, AL, Lamar County, AL, Marengo County, AL, Marion County, AL, Mobile County, AL, Monroe County, AL, Perry County, AL, Pickens County, AL, Shelby County, AL, Sumter County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Walker County, AL, Washington County, AL, Wilcox County, AL, Winston County, AL, Saint Tammany Parish, LA, Chickasaw County, MS, George County, MS, Greene County, MS, Hancock County, MS, Harrison County, MS, Itawamba County, MS, Jackson County, MS, Lee County, MS, Monroe County, MS, Pearl River County, MS, Perry County, MS, Stone County, MS, Wayne County, MS
The radar
The Jackson/Brandon,MS radar (KDGX), 122 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:05 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
- 30%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 30%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 30%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 20%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 10%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 50%
Warnings issued inside it
24 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 9, 8:06 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MEG | Chickasaw, Lee, Monroe | 39 min |
| Dec 9, 8:24 PM CST | Flash Flood Warning | MEG | Calhoun, Chickasaw, Itawamba, Lafayette, Lee, Monroe and 3 more | 3 hr |
| Dec 9, 8:31 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MEG | Itawamba, Lee, Monroe | 59 min |
| Dec 9, 9:15 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Lamar, Marion | 45 min |
| Dec 9, 9:21 PM CST | Tornado Warning | MEG | Itawamba | 24 min |
| Dec 9, 9:59 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Lamar, Marion | 31 min |
| Dec 9, 10:01 PM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Pickens | 44 min |
| Dec 9, 10:47 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Fayette, Greene, Pickens, Tuscaloosa, Walker | 43 min |
| Dec 9, 11:01 PM CST | Flash Flood Warning | BMX | Fayette, Lamar, Marion, Winston | 3 hr |
| Dec 9, 11:13 PM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Greene, Pickens | 32 min |
| Dec 9, 11:36 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Fayette, Pickens, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Winston | 39 min |
| Dec 9, 11:45 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Pickens, Tuscaloosa | 30 min |
| Dec 10, 12:06 AM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Fayette, Tuscaloosa, Walker | 24 min |
| Dec 10, 12:22 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Greene, Hale, Pickens, Sumter | 38 min |
| Dec 10, 12:31 AM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Fayette, Walker | 29 min |
| Dec 10, 12:41 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Blount, Fayette, Jefferson, Tuscaloosa, Walker | 49 min |
| Dec 10, 12:50 AM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Pickens, Tuscaloosa | 40 min |
| Dec 10, 12:55 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Greene, Hale, Pickens, Sumter, Tuscaloosa | 50 min |
| Dec 10, 12:59 AM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Walker, Winston | 16 min |
| Dec 10, 1:09 AM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Blount, Walker | 6 min |
| Dec 10, 1:13 AM CST | Tornado Warning | LIX | Saint Tammany | 32 min |
| Dec 10, 1:20 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB | Wayne | 25 min |
| Dec 10, 1:31 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Greene, Hale, Pickens, Sumter, Tuscaloosa | 44 min |
| Dec 10, 1:32 AM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Pickens, Tuscaloosa | 28 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
Jackson, MS (KJAN), launched 00:00Z, 2.1 hours before the alert went out and 132 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1039 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 630 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 62 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 331 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 385 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.7
- Supercell composite
- 8.9
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 9, 6:15 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Clarke, Escambia, Mobile, Monroe, Washington | 90 min |
| Dec 9, 9:51 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Autauga, Butler, Chilton, Coosa, Crenshaw, Elmore and 4 more | 54 min |
| Dec 9, 11:42 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Blount, Chilton, Coosa, Cullman, Jefferson, Marshall and 3 more | 63 min |
| Dec 10, 1:25 AM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Autauga, Baldwin, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Butler and 42 more | 65 min |
| Dec 10, 1:41 AM CST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Autauga, Baldwin, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock and 40 more | 5 hr |
| Dec 10, 3:31 AM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Autauga, Baldwin, Bibb, Blount, Butler, Calhoun and 31 more | 59 min |
| Dec 10, 5:29 AM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Autauga, Baldwin, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Calhoun and 31 more | 61 min |
| Dec 10, 6:47 AM CST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Autauga, Baldwin, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Chambers and 22 more | 7 hr |
| Dec 10, 10:45 AM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Barbour, Bullock, Coffee, Covington, Dale, Geneva and 5 more | 2 hr |
| Dec 10, 1:08 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Houston | 67 min |
| Dec 9, 10:19 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston and 6 more | 56 min |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in Alabama, 2008Tornado Watches in Mississippi, 2008Tornado Watches in Louisiana, 2008Every 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.