Alert archive / Arkansas / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2011

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 343

May 23, 201126 counties in Arkansas; Dunklin County, Pemiscot County, Missouri; 9 counties in Tennessee

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at May 23, 2011, 1:34 PM CDT for 26 counties in Arkansas; Dunklin County, Pemiscot County, Missouri; 9 counties in Tennessee. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 23, 2011, 1:34 PM CDT (18:34 UTC)
Expired: May 23, 2011, 7:08 PM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 37 counties

Clay County, AR, Cleburne County, AR, Conway County, AR, Craighead County, AR, Crittenden County, AR, Cross County, AR, Faulkner County, AR, Fulton County, AR, Greene County, AR, Independence County, AR, Izard County, AR, Jackson County, AR, Johnson County, AR, Lawrence County, AR, Mississippi County, AR, Newton County, AR, Poinsett County, AR, Pope County, AR, Randolph County, AR, Searcy County, AR, Sharp County, AR, St. Francis County, AR, Stone County, AR, Van Buren County, AR, White County, AR, Woodruff County, AR, Dunklin County, MO, Pemiscot County, MO, Crockett County, TN, Dyer County, TN, Fayette County, TN, Haywood County, TN, Lake County, TN, Lauderdale County, TN, Obion County, TN, Shelby County, TN, Tipton County, TN

The radar

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 126 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:36 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: 20%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 5%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 50%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 30%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 30%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 20%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 23, 1:47 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LZK	Fulton, Izard, Sharp	43 min
May 23, 1:58 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MEG	Lawrence, Randolph	47 min
May 23, 2:33 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Lawrence	42 min
May 23, 2:43 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	MEG	Clay, Greene, Randolph	47 min
May 23, 3:09 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Boone, Newton	51 min
May 23, 3:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Clay, Greene	49 min
May 23, 3:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Johnson, Newton	42 min
May 23, 3:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Craighead, Mississippi, Poinsett	42 min
May 23, 3:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Crittenden, Cross, Mississippi, Poinsett	52 min
May 23, 3:54 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Marion, Newton, Searcy	15 min
May 23, 4:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Johnson	57 min
May 23, 4:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Mississippi	47 min
May 23, 4:21 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Mississippi	39 min
May 23, 4:28 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LZK	Johnson, Newton, Pope	47 min
May 23, 4:29 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Crittenden, Mississippi	46 min
May 23, 4:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Mississippi	41 min
May 23, 4:58 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Crockett, Dyer, Gibson, Haywood, Lauderdale	47 min
May 23, 5:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Carroll, Crockett, Gibson, Weakley	50 min
May 23, 5:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Fayette, Hardeman, Haywood	40 min
May 23, 5:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Carroll, Crockett, Fayette, Gibson, Hardeman, Haywood and 1 more	52 min
May 23, 5:47 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Fayette, Shelby	43 min
May 23, 5:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Carroll, Gibson, Henry, Obion, Weakley	50 min
May 23, 6:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Chester, Fayette, Hardeman, Madison	49 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

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), launched 12:00Z, 6.6 hours before the alert went out and 198 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: 2279 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -67 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 553 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 184 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 229 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 2.1
Supercell composite: 10.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 22, 7:52 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Conway, Crawford and 13 more	53 min
May 22, 8:47 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clay, Cleburne and 34 more	7 hr
May 22, 11:46 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clay, Cleburne, Conway, Craighead, Crawford, Cross and 23 more	89 min
May 23, 5:07 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Crawford, Fulton and 10 more	113 min
May 23, 7:38 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Benton, Carroll	97 min
May 23, 9:14 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clark, Cleburne, Conway, Crawford, Dallas, Faulkner and 26 more	91 min
May 23, 9:57 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Lafayette, Little River, Miller	33 min
May 23, 10:34 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Benton, Carroll, Fulton	86 min
May 23, 12:10 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Lafayette, Miller	65 min
May 23, 12:12 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clay, Craighead and 13 more	93 min
May 23, 1:16 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baxter, Clay, Craighead, Fulton, Greene, Independence and 5 more	89 min
May 23, 3:58 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clay, Cleburne, Conway, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross and 20 more	92 min
May 23, 5:07 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Benton, Crawford, Washington	23 min
May 23, 5:24 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Crawford, Franklin, Sebastian, Washington	4 hr
May 23, 6:18 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cleburne, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Faulkner, Independence and 11 more	87 min
May 22, 8:26 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barry, Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Carter, Crawford and 33 more	8 hr
May 22, 10:24 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Madison, Perry, Sainte Genevieve and 2 more	66 min
May 23, 5:41 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barton, Bates, Cedar, Dade, Hickory, Jasper and 5 more	94 min
May 23, 6:08 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Barry, Barton, Bates, Benton, Camden, Cass and 34 more	7 hr
May 23, 10:55 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Audrain, Bollinger, Boone, Butler, Callaway, Cape Girardeau and 28 more	7 hr
May 23, 12:37 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	City of Saint Louis	83 min
May 23, 3:20 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Clay, Davidson, Fentress, Jackson, Macon, Overton and 9 more	85 min
May 23, 4:24 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bedford, Benton, Carroll, Cheatham, Chester, Davidson and 29 more	96 min
May 23, 4:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Bedford, Benton, Carroll, Cheatham, Chester, Davidson and 29 more	4 hr

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Arkansas, 2011 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Tennessee, 2011 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Missouri, 2011 Every severe thunderstorm watch in 2011

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.