Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Watches in 2009
Tornado Watch 798
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Dec 8, 2009, 6:12 PM CST for 21 counties in Alabama; 20 counties in Mississippi. It was in force for 8 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Dec 8, 2009, 6:12 PM CST (00:12 UTC)
- Expired
- Dec 9, 2009, 2:00 AM CST
- In force
- 8 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 1.5 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 41 counties
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, 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, Clarke County, MS, Clay County, MS, Covington County, MS, Forrest County, MS, Greene County, MS, Jasper County, MS, Jefferson Davis County, MS, Jones County, MS, Kemper County, MS, Lamar County, MS, Lauderdale County, MS, Lowndes County, MS, Marion County, MS, Neshoba County, MS, Newton County, MS, Noxubee County, MS, Oktibbeha County, MS, Perry County, MS, Smith County, MS, Wayne County, MS
The radar
The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 97 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:14 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
- 80%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 50%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 60%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 20%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 30%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 5%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 95%
Warnings issued inside it
36 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 8, 7:02 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN | Jasper, Scott, Smith | 28 min |
| Dec 8, 7:02 PM CST | Tornado Warning | JAN | Lauderdale, Newton | 43 min |
| Dec 8, 7:33 PM CST | Tornado Warning | JAN | Kemper | 42 min |
| Dec 8, 7:45 PM CST | Tornado Warning | JAN | Kemper, Lauderdale, Newton | 32 min |
| Dec 8, 7:56 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Greene, Pickens, Sumter | 49 min |
| Dec 8, 8:17 PM CST | Flash Flood Warning | JAN | Choctaw, Clay, Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Webster | 4 hr |
| Dec 8, 8:41 PM CST | Tornado Warning | JAN | Attala, Leake, Neshoba, Winston | 34 min |
| Dec 8, 8:56 PM CST | Flash Flood Warning | BMX | Fayette, Marion, Walker, Winston | 6 hr |
| Dec 8, 9:12 PM CST | Tornado Warning | JAN | Noxubee, Winston | 33 min |
| Dec 8, 9:19 PM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Pickens | 41 min |
| Dec 8, 9:19 PM CST | Tornado Warning | JAN | Noxubee | 26 min |
| Dec 8, 9:42 PM CST | Tornado Warning | JAN | Lowndes, Noxubee | 10 min |
| Dec 8, 9:44 PM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Pickens, Tuscaloosa | 46 min |
| Dec 8, 9:51 PM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Pickens | 24 min |
| Dec 8, 10:08 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Fayette, Pickens, Tuscaloosa | 37 min |
| Dec 8, 10:21 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN | Choctaw, Clay, Oktibbeha, Webster | 36 min |
| Dec 8, 10:22 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Jefferson, Walker | 33 min |
| Dec 8, 10:37 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Blount, Jefferson | 38 min |
| Dec 8, 11:01 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN | Lauderdale, Newton | 47 min |
| Dec 8, 11:14 PM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Blount, Etowah, St. Clair | 22 min |
| Dec 8, 11:18 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Fayette, Lamar, Marion | 42 min |
| Dec 8, 11:22 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN | Kemper | 23 min |
| Dec 8, 11:29 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Greene, Hale, Sumter | 61 min |
| Dec 8, 11:35 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN | Jones | 40 min |
| Dec 8, 11:37 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB | Choctaw | 38 min |
| Dec 8, 11:44 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN | Covington, Forrest, Jefferson Davis, Lamar, Marion | 31 min |
| Dec 8, 11:49 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB | Choctaw, Washington | 56 min |
| Dec 8, 11:59 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN | Clarke | 39 min |
| Dec 9, 12:05 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Bibb, Greene, Hale, Perry, Sumter, Tuscaloosa | 40 min |
| Dec 9, 12:09 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Blount, Jefferson, St. Clair | 51 min |
| Dec 9, 12:13 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN | Jones | 32 min |
| Dec 9, 12:20 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB | Choctaw | 40 min |
| Dec 9, 12:23 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Bibb, Chilton, Coosa, Hale, Marengo, Perry and 1 more | 52 min |
| Dec 9, 12:36 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | JAN | Leake, Madison, Neshoba, Rankin, Scott | 31 min |
| Dec 9, 12:46 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB | Choctaw, Washington | 27 min |
| Dec 9, 1:05 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Chilton, Clay, Coosa, Shelby, Talladega | 40 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 00:00Z, 0.2 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
- 11 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -328 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 495 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 55 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 644 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 840 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 4.2
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 8, 9:47 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Bibb, Blount, Choctaw, Clarke, Colbert, Cullman and 18 more | 88 min |
| Dec 8, 10:24 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Coosa and 10 more | 96 min |
| Dec 8, 11:09 PM CST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Autauga, Bullock, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Chilton and 17 more | 5 hr |
| Dec 9, 2:20 AM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Chambers, Coffee, Conecuh and 16 more | 85 min |
| Dec 9, 3:32 AM CST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston | 5 hr |
| Dec 8, 8:08 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Attala, Choctaw, Copiah, Hinds, Lawrence, Leake and 7 more | 97 min |
| Dec 8, 8:33 PM CST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Adams, Amite, Attala, Carroll, Choctaw, Claiborne and 27 more | 5 hr |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in Alabama, 2009Tornado Watches in Mississippi, 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.