Alert archive / Arkansas / Tornado Watches in 2009

Tornado Watch 225

May 2, 200925 counties in Arkansas; 8 counties in Oklahoma; 21 counties in Texas

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 2, 2009, 12:17 PM CDT for 25 counties in Arkansas; 8 counties in Oklahoma; 21 counties in Texas. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 2, 2009, 12:17 PM CDT (17:17 UTC)
Expired: May 2, 2009, 6:47 PM CDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 54 counties

Arkansas County, AR, Ashley County, AR, Bradley County, AR, Calhoun County, AR, Chicot County, AR, Clark County, AR, Cleveland County, AR, Columbia County, AR, Dallas County, AR, Desha County, AR, Drew County, AR, Grant County, AR, Hempstead County, AR, Hot Spring County, AR, Howard County, AR, Jefferson County, AR, Lafayette County, AR, Lincoln County, AR, Little River County, AR, Miller County, AR, Nevada County, AR, Ouachita County, AR, Pike County, AR, Sevier County, AR, Union County, AR, Atoka County, OK, Bryan County, OK, Choctaw County, OK, Coal County, OK, Johnston County, OK, Marshall County, OK, McCurtain County, OK, Pushmataha County, OK, Bowie County, TX, Camp County, TX, Cass County, TX, Collin County, TX, Delta County, TX, Denton County, TX, Fannin County, TX, Franklin County, TX, Grayson County, TX, Gregg County, TX, Harrison County, TX, Hopkins County, TX, Hunt County, TX, Lamar County, TX, Marion County, TX, Morris County, TX, Red River County, TX, Smith County, TX, Titus County, TX, Upshur County, TX, Wood County, TX

The radar

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 154 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:18 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: 30%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 30%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 30%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 50%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 40%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 2, 12:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Howard	32 min
May 2, 12:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Clark, Montgomery, Pike	41 min
May 2, 2:02 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Cleveland, Dallas, Grant, Jefferson	43 min
May 2, 2:08 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LZK	Cleveland, Dallas, Grant, Jefferson, Lincoln	52 min
May 2, 2:56 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LZK	Cleveland, Jefferson, Lincoln	49 min
May 2, 2:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Collin, Denton	63 min
May 2, 3:21 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	TSA	Choctaw	54 min
May 2, 3:30 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Bradley, Calhoun, Cleveland, Drew, Lincoln	45 min
May 2, 3:40 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LZK	Clark, Dallas, Garland, Hot Spring, Montgomery, Perry and 4 more	6 hr
May 2, 3:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Fannin, Hunt, Kaufman, Rains, Rockwall	50 min
May 2, 3:47 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FWD	Collin, Hunt, Rockwall	43 min
May 2, 3:51 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LZK	Desha, Drew, Lincoln	39 min
May 2, 4:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Columbia, Hempstead, Lafayette, Nevada	45 min
May 2, 4:07 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	TSA	Choctaw, Pushmataha	10 hr
May 2, 4:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Delta, Hopkins, Lamar, Rains	52 min
May 2, 4:15 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Bradley, Drew	60 min
May 2, 4:24 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	FWD	Delta, Hopkins, Lamar	51 min
May 2, 4:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OUN	Bryan, Marshall	25 min
May 2, 4:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Desha	39 min
May 2, 4:41 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	SHV	Little River	64 min
May 2, 4:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Camp, Franklin, Red River, Titus, Upshur, Wood	48 min
May 2, 4:59 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	LZK	Bradley, Calhoun, Clark, Cleveland, Dallas, Ouachita	6 hr
May 2, 5:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Chicot	45 min
May 2, 5:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Bowie, Cass, Morris	48 min
May 2, 5:21 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	SHV	McCurtain	54 min
May 2, 5:23 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Bowie, Camp, Cass, Franklin, Gregg, Harrison and 6 more	67 min
May 2, 5:42 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	SHV	Bowie, Cass	63 min
May 2, 5:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Cass, Marion	46 min
May 2, 6:03 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	SHV	Little River	117 min
May 2, 6:06 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Denton	54 min
May 2, 6:08 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	SHV	Hempstead, Lafayette, Miller	67 min
May 2, 6:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Hempstead, Howard, Little River, Miller, Sevier	65 min
May 2, 6:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Columbia, Lafayette, Miller	59 min
May 2, 6:42 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	SHV	Columbia, Hempstead, Howard, Lafayette, Little River, Miller and 2 more	14 hr
May 2, 6:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FWD	Collin, Dallas, Hunt, Kaufman, Rockwall	61 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

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), launched 12:00Z, 5.3 hours before the alert went out and 179 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: 1211 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -39 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 501 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 134 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 172 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 2.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 1, 9:36 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Cleburne, Conway and 34 more	84 min
May 1, 9:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Arkansas, Clark, Cleburne, Conway, Crawford, Faulkner and 27 more	6 hr
May 2, 1:45 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Arkansas, Clark, Cleburne, Cleveland, Conway, Crittenden and 34 more	90 min
May 2, 9:23 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Arkansas, Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Chicot, Clark and 26 more	97 min
May 2, 3:47 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Columbia, Drew, Lafayette and 5 more	58 min
May 2, 5:25 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Columbia, Drew, Lafayette and 4 more	95 min
May 2, 6:03 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Chicot, Columbia, Desha and 10 more	6 hr
May 1, 7:19 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Cleveland, Coal, Comanche and 16 more	86 min
May 2, 2:58 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beckham, Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Cleveland, Comanche and 34 more	3 hr
May 2, 6:50 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Atoka, Coal, Haskell, Hughes, Johnston, Latimer and 10 more	3 hr
May 2, 1:24 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bell, Blanco, Bosque, Burnet, Collin, Coryell and 31 more	66 min
May 2, 1:56 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bell, Bosque, Coryell, Dallas, Ellis, Falls and 18 more	4 hr
May 2, 3:04 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Camp, Cherokee, Gregg, Harrison, Houston and 10 more	26 min
May 2, 5:10 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Harrison, Panola, Rusk	65 min
May 2, 6:49 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Camp, Cass, Franklin, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman and 7 more	86 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Arkansas, 2009 Tornado Watches in Texas, 2009 Tornado Watches in Oklahoma, 2009 Every tornado watch 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.