Alert archive / Georgia / Tornado Watches in 2009
Tornado Watch 254
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 6, 2009, 9:27 AM CDT for 37 counties in Alabama; 81 counties in Georgia; Anderson County, Oconee County, Pickens County, South Carolina. It was in force for 9 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 6, 2009, 9:27 AM CDT (14:27 UTC)
- Expired
- May 6, 2009, 6:00 PM CDT
- In force
- 9 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 2.5 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 70 kt
All 121 counties
Autauga County, AL, Barbour County, AL, Bibb County, AL, Blount County, AL, Bullock County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Chambers County, AL, Cherokee County, AL, Chilton County, AL, Clay County, AL, Cleburne County, AL, Coosa County, AL, Dallas County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Elmore County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Greene County, AL, Hale County, AL, Jackson County, AL, Jefferson County, AL, Lee County, AL, Lowndes County, AL, Macon County, AL, Marengo County, AL, Marshall County, AL, Montgomery County, AL, Perry County, AL, Pike County, AL, Randolph County, AL, Russell County, AL, Shelby County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Sumter County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tallapoosa County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Walker County, AL, Baldwin County, GA, Banks County, GA, Barrow County, GA, Bartow County, GA, Bibb County, GA, Butts County, GA, Carroll County, GA, Catoosa County, GA, Chattahoochee County, GA, Chattooga County, GA, Cherokee County, GA, Clarke County, GA, Clayton County, GA, Cobb County, GA, Coweta County, GA, Crawford County, GA, Dade County, GA, Dawson County, GA, DeKalb County, GA, Douglas County, GA, Elbert County, GA, Fannin County, GA, Fayette County, GA, Floyd County, GA, Forsyth County, GA, Franklin County, GA, Fulton County, GA, Gilmer County, GA, Gordon County, GA, Greene County, GA, Gwinnett County, GA, Habersham County, GA, Hall County, GA, Hancock County, GA, Haralson County, GA, Harris County, GA, Hart County, GA, Heard County, GA, Henry County, GA, Houston County, GA, Jackson County, GA, Jasper County, GA, Jones County, GA, Lamar County, GA, Lumpkin County, GA, Macon County, GA, Madison County, GA, Marion County, GA, Meriwether County, GA, Monroe County, GA, Morgan County, GA, Murray County, GA, Muscogee County, GA, Newton County, GA, Oconee County, GA, Oglethorpe County, GA, Paulding County, GA, Peach County, GA, Pickens County, GA, Pike County, GA, Polk County, GA, Putnam County, GA, Rabun County, GA, Rockdale County, GA, Schley County, GA, Spalding County, GA, Stephens County, GA, Talbot County, GA, Taliaferro County, GA, Taylor County, GA, Towns County, GA, Troup County, GA, Twiggs County, GA, Union County, GA, Upson County, GA, Walker County, GA, Walton County, GA, White County, GA, Whitfield County, GA, Wilkes County, GA, Wilkinson County, GA, Anderson County, SC, Oconee County, SC, Pickens County, SC
The radar
The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 100 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 14:29 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
- 60%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 20%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 80%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 50%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 60%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 30%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 95%
Warnings issued inside it
26 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 6, 9:44 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | BMX | Blount, Jefferson | 9 min |
| May 6, 9:45 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | HUN | Jackson, Madison, Marshall | 45 min |
| May 6, 10:08 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Blount, Etowah, Jefferson, St. Clair | 52 min |
| May 6, 10:13 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | HUN | Marshall | 47 min |
| May 6, 10:27 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Jefferson, St. Clair, Shelby, Talladega | 33 min |
| May 6, 10:31 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | HUN | Jackson | 29 min |
| May 6, 10:46 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | HUN | DeKalb, Marshall | 23 min |
| May 6, 11:12 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | HUN | DeKalb, Jackson | 13 min |
| May 6, 11:42 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Coosa, Tallapoosa | 33 min |
| May 6, 11:46 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Autauga, Chilton, Coosa, Elmore | 44 min |
| May 6, 12:20 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Autauga, Coosa, Elmore, Lowndes, Montgomery, Tallapoosa | 40 min |
| May 6, 12:44 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Autauga, Elmore, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery | 46 min |
| May 6, 12:47 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Chambers, Tallapoosa | 43 min |
| May 6, 1:26 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Elmore, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery, Tallapoosa | 34 min |
| May 6, 1:54 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Troup | 25 min |
| May 6, 2:05 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Meriwether | 35 min |
| May 6, 2:43 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Harris, Muscogee | 62 min |
| May 6, 2:48 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Lee, Macon, Russell | 42 min |
| May 6, 2:54 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Bullock, Macon, Montgomery, Pike | 30 min |
| May 6, 3:32 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Chattahoochee, Harris, Marion, Muscogee, Talbot | 58 min |
| May 6, 3:43 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Lamar, Monroe, Upson | 36 min |
| May 6, 3:56 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Marion, Talbot, Taylor | 36 min |
| May 6, 3:57 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Barbour, Bullock, Russell | 37 min |
| May 6, 4:08 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GSP | Elbert, Hart | 37 min |
| May 6, 4:28 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Chattahoochee, Marion | 32 min |
| May 6, 4:44 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GSP | Elbert | 46 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
Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 2.5 hours before the alert went out and 101 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
- 1131 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -10 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 517 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 47 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 194 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 301 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.0
- Supercell composite
- 5.3
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 5, 11:45 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Blount, Calhoun, Colbert, Cullman, Etowah, Fayette and 13 more | 90 min |
| May 6, 1:27 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Blount, Cullman, Fayette, Franklin, Jefferson, Lamar and 4 more | 3 hr |
| May 6, 3:05 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Fayette, Jefferson, Lamar, Marion, Pickens, Tuscaloosa and 1 more | 115 min |
| May 6, 4:03 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Bibb, Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne and 27 more | 6 hr |
| May 6, 6:58 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Greene, Pickens, Sumter | 3 hr |
| May 6, 7:22 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bibb, Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Chilton, Clay and 28 more | 83 min |
| May 6, 9:04 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Autauga, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Butler, Calhoun and 27 more | 56 min |
| May 6, 12:37 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Butler, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Covington, Crenshaw and 4 more | 6 hr |
| May 6, 1:57 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bullock, Russell | 93 min |
| May 6, 4:47 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Dale, Geneva, Henry | 58 min |
| May 6, 7:47 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Banks, Barrow, Clarke, Columbia, Elbert, Franklin and 17 more | 88 min |
| May 5, 7:43 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Anson, Bertie, Chatham, Chowan, Cumberland, Durham and 30 more | 62 min |
| May 6, 10:40 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Alamance, Anson, Cabarrus, Caswell, Chatham, Cleveland and 32 more | 2 hr |
| May 6, 1:16 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Alamance, Alexander, Anson, Bertie, Buncombe, Burke and 52 more | 6 hr |
| May 6, 6:29 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Alamance, Anson, Bertie, Cabarrus, Caswell, Chatham and 40 more | 91 min |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in Georgia, 2009Tornado Watches in Alabama, 2009Tornado Watches in South Carolina, 2009Every 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.