Alert archive / Alabama / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 2009

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 290, NWS Birmingham, AL

June 12, 2009Jefferson County, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

NWS Birmingham, AL issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jun 12, 2009, 4:23 PM CDT for Jefferson County, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. It was in force for 37 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Jun 12, 2009, 4:23 PM CDT (21:23 UTC)
Expired: Jun 12, 2009, 5:00 PM CDT
In force: 37 min
Issued by: NWS Birmingham, AL
Area: Storm-based polygon

Counties Jefferson County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL

The radar

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 50 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:24 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.

The watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Jun 12, 3:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	7 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 9.4 hours before the alert went out and 48 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: 2334 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -14 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 692 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 14 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: -0.0
Supercell composite: -0.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Birmingham, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Jun 12, 3:37 PM CDT, 46 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 12, 3:37 PM CDT, 46 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
337 PM CDT FRI JUN 12 2009

.DISCUSSION...
VERY UNSTABLE AIR MASS ACROSS THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON...AND
OBVIOUSLY CURRENTLY WATCHING UPSTREAM CONVECTION MOVING THROUGH
ARKANSAS MAKING A BEE LINE FOR CENTRAL ALABAMA. CONVECTIVE
PARAMETERIZATION FAILURES IN THE MODELS MAKE THEM PRETTY MUCH
USELESS FOR POP PURPOSES MOST OF THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS. WILL GO
SIGNIFICANTLY ABOVE MOS POPS TONIGHT...AND INCLUDE ENHANCED
DAMAGING WIND ELEMENTS IN THE FORECAST. LOOKS LIKE THE UPSTREAM
BOW WILL MAKE IT INTO AT LEAST WEST CENTRAL ALABAMA...IF NOT
COMPLETELY ACROSS THE STATE.

REMAINDER OF THE FORECAST WAS LARGELY SEAT OF MY PANTS...SINCE MOS
POPS ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED. LOOKS LIKE WE WILL BE IN THE POTENTIAL
FIRING LINE FOR ADDITIONAL MCS CLUSTERS THROUGH AT LEAST SUNDAY.
AFTER THAT...WILL TREND THINGS MORE TOWARD CLIMATOLOGY BLENDED
WITH THE ANTICIPATED AFFECTS OF AN UPPER LEVEL RIDGE (SLIGHTLY
LESS CONVECTION AND HIGHER TEMPS).

/61/

&&

.AVIATION...18Z TAF DISCUSSION.

SCT-BKN CUMULUS WILL DOMINATE SKY CONDS THRU 01Z.  TSTMS WILL
INCREASE IN COVERAGE THIS AFTERNOON MAINLY ACROSS NORTH ALABAMA.
OUTSIDE OF CONVECTION...VFR CONDITIONS WILL PREVAIL. AN MCS OVER
ARKANSAS WILL TRACK SOUTHEAST AND COULD AFFECT WEST ALABAMA BETWEEN
01Z AND 05Z.  HOWEVER...CONFIDENCE IS TO LOW AT THIS TIME TO INCLUDE
TSTMS IN TAFS.

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
GADSDEN     65  89  68  90  68 /  50  30  20  30  30
ANNISTON    68  91  68  91  70 /  50  30  20  30  30
BIRMINGHAM  69  89  70  92  72 /  60  40  20  30  30
TUSCALOOSA  71  92  70  94  71 /  60  40  20  30  30
CALERA      71  89  70  92  70 /  60  40  20  30  30
AUBURN      70  89  71  92  73 /  40  30  20  30  20
MONTGOMERY  72  93  71  95  72 /  50  20  20  30  20
TROY        70  91  71  94  71 /  30  20  20  30  20

&&

.BMX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE.

&&

Hazardous weather outlook, Jun 12, 12:51 PM CDT, 3 hours 32 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
1251 PM CDT FRI JUN 12 2009

ALZ011>015-017>050-131200-
AUTAUGA-BARBOUR-BIBB-BLOUNT-BULLOCK-CALHOUN-CHAMBERS-CHEROKEE-
CHILTON-CLAY-CLEBURNE-COOSA-DALLAS-ELMORE-ETOWAH-FAYETTE-GREENE-HALE-
JEFFERSON-LAMAR-LEE-LOWNDES-MACON-MARENGO-MARION-MONTGOMERY-PERRY-
PICKENS-PIKE-RANDOLPH-RUSSELL-SHELBY-ST CLAIR-SUMTER-TALLADEGA-
TALLAPOOSA-TUSCALOOSA-WALKER-WINSTON-
1251 PM CDT FRI JUN 12 2009

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE COUNTIES SERVED BY THE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE IN BIRMINGHAM.

.DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.

THERE IS A RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS FROM 2 PM UNTIL MIDNIGHT...
GENERALLY ALONG AND NORTH OF THE LINE FROM GEIGER...TO MARION...
TO WETUMPKA...TO AUBURN. THE PRIMARY THREATS WILL BE DAMAGING
WINDS AND LARGE HAIL. ISOLATED SEVERE STORMS ARE POSSIBLE THIS
AFTERNOON GENERALLY ALONG AND NORTH OF I-20.  A MORE ORGANIZED
THREAT OF SEVERE STORMS EXISTS THIS EVENING AS A LARGE THUNDERSTORM
COMPLEX APPROACHES WEST ALABAMA THIS EVENING.  THERE IS UNCERTAINTY
AS TO WHETHER THIS SYSTEM WILL IS WEAKEN AS IT MOVES INTO
ALABAMA....BUT THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE
WINDS WITH THIS SYSTEM.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY.

ANOTHER RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL EXIST ON
SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING...ANYWHERE ACROSS THE AREA
AS AN UPPER LEVEL IMPULSE MOVES THROUGH.  THE PRIMARY THREAT
WILL BE DAMAGING WINDS.

NO OTHER HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE
PERIOD AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT MAY BE
REQUIRED TODAY AND AGAIN ON SATURDAY.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jun 12, 3:33 PM CDT, 50 minutes before

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Local storm report, Jun 12, 3:50 PM CDT, 33 minutes before

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Local storm report, Jun 12, 4:12 PM CDT, 11 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
412 PM CDT FRI JUN 12 2009

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0401 PM     TSTM WND DMG     6 WSW FAYETTE           33.66N 87.92W
06/12/2009                   FAYETTE            AL   EMERGENCY MNGR

            TREES DOWN ON A HOUSE IN THE BELK COMMUNITY. PEOPLE
            REPORTED TRAPPED INSIDE. NO REPORTS OF INJURIES AT THIS
            TIME.

&&

GGOGGINS

The office that day

Everything else NWS Birmingham, AL issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 12, 2:32 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lamar, Marion	58 min
Jun 12, 2:54 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lamar, Pickens	66 min
Jun 12, 3:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette, Lamar, Marion, Pickens	65 min
Jun 12, 3:41 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Winston	64 min
Jun 12, 3:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette, Pickens, Tuscaloosa, Walker	42 min
Jun 12, 4:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette, Lamar, Pickens	32 min
Jun 12, 4:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Winston	39 min
Jun 12, 4:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Greene, Lamar, Pickens, Tuscaloosa	61 min
Jun 12, 4:51 PM CDT	Areal Flood Advisory	BMX	Bibb, Greene, Jefferson, Lamar, Pickens, Tuscaloosa	114 min
Jun 12, 4:52 PM CDT	Areal Flood Advisory	BMX	Marion, Winston	113 min
Jun 12, 4:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Bibb, Jefferson, Shelby, Tuscaloosa	50 min
Jun 12, 5:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Marion	29 min
Jun 12, 5:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Bibb, Chilton, Shelby	39 min
Jun 12, 5:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Pickens, Tuscaloosa	30 min
Jun 12, 6:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Blount, Jefferson, St. Clair	29 min
Jun 12, 6:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Coosa, Talladega	41 min
Jun 12, 6:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Etowah	29 min
Jun 12, 6:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lamar, Pickens	22 min
Jun 12, 6:29 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Lamar, Marion	46 min
Jun 12, 6:47 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette, Lamar, Pickens	43 min
Jun 12, 6:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Fayette, Lamar, Marion, Walker, Winston	39 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Alabama, 2009 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 2009

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.