Alert archive / Georgia / Tornado Watches in 2009
Tornado Watch 800
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Dec 8, 2009, 11:09 PM CST for 23 counties in Alabama; 25 counties in Georgia. It was in force for 5 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Dec 8, 2009, 11:09 PM CST (05:09 UTC)
- Expired
- Dec 9, 2009, 4:13 AM CST
- In force
- 5 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 0.5 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 48 counties
Autauga 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, Cullman County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Elmore County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Lee County, AL, Lowndes County, AL, Macon County, AL, Marshall County, AL, Montgomery County, AL, Randolph County, AL, Russell County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tallapoosa County, AL, Bartow County, GA, Carroll County, GA, Catoosa County, GA, Chattooga County, GA, Cherokee County, GA, Clayton County, GA, Cobb County, GA, Coweta County, GA, Dade County, GA, Douglas County, GA, Fayette County, GA, Floyd County, GA, Fulton County, GA, Gordon County, GA, Haralson County, GA, Harris County, GA, Heard County, GA, Meriwether County, GA, Murray County, GA, Muscogee County, GA, Paulding County, GA, Polk County, GA, Troup County, GA, Walker County, GA, Whitfield County, GA
The radar
The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 65 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 05:10 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
- 30%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 30%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 30%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 10%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 10%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 5%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 50%
Warnings issued inside it
18 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 8, 11:14 PM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Blount, Etowah, St. Clair | 22 min |
| Dec 8, 11:30 PM CST | Flash Flood Warning | HUN | Cullman | 60 min |
| Dec 8, 11:46 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Catoosa, Dade, Walker | 29 min |
| Dec 9, 12:01 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Chattooga, Floyd, Walker | 44 min |
| Dec 9, 12:09 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Blount, Jefferson, St. Clair | 51 min |
| Dec 9, 12:18 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Gordon, Murray, Whitfield | 42 min |
| Dec 9, 12:23 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Bibb, Chilton, Coosa, Hale, Marengo, Perry and 1 more | 52 min |
| Dec 9, 12:28 AM CST | Flash Flood Warning | HUN | Cullman, DeKalb, Jackson, Madison, Marshall, Morgan | 2 hr |
| Dec 9, 12:31 AM CST | Flash Flood Warning | FFC | Chattooga, Floyd, Walker | 6 hr |
| Dec 9, 1:05 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Chilton, Clay, Coosa, Shelby, Talladega | 40 min |
| Dec 9, 1:11 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Autauga, Chilton, Coosa, Elmore | 49 min |
| Dec 9, 1:23 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Floyd, Polk | 32 min |
| Dec 9, 1:30 AM CST | Flash Flood Warning | BMX | Clay, Talladega | 90 min |
| Dec 9, 1:37 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Clay, Cleburne, Randolph | 38 min |
| Dec 9, 1:40 AM CST | Flash Flood Warning | FFC | Gordon, Murray, Whitfield | 6 hr |
| Dec 9, 2:01 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Chambers, Randolph, Tallapoosa | 44 min |
| Dec 9, 2:53 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Coweta, Fayette | 22 min |
| Dec 9, 3:03 AM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Clayton, Henry, Newton, Rockdale, Spalding | 27 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, 5.2 hours before the alert went out and 66 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, 6:12 PM CST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Bibb, Blount, Choctaw, Clarke, Dallas, Fayette and 15 more | 8 hr |
| 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 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 9, 5:11 AM CST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Burke, Columbia, Richmond | 4 hr |
| Dec 9, 7:15 AM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Baker, Ben Hill, Candler, Coffee, Colquitt, Decatur and 13 more | 60 min |
| Dec 9, 10:29 AM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Brantley, Brooks, Charlton, Clinch, Echols, Lanier and 3 more | 91 min |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in Georgia, 2009Tornado Watches in Alabama, 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.