Alert archive / Alabama / Mesoscale Discussions in 2014

Mesoscale Discussion 279

April 4, 201415 counties in Alabama; 9 counties in Mississippi; 9 counties in Tennessee

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Apr 4, 2014, 2:29 AM CDT for 15 counties in Alabama; 9 counties in Mississippi; 9 counties in Tennessee. It was in force for 31 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Apr 4, 2014, 2:29 AM CDT (07:29 UTC)
Expired: Apr 4, 2014, 3:00 AM CDT
In force: 31 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Chance of a watch: 95%

All 33 counties

Colbert County, AL, Cullman County, AL, Fayette County, AL, Franklin County, AL, Lamar County, AL, Lauderdale County, AL, Lawrence County, AL, Limestone County, AL, Madison County, AL, Marion County, AL, Morgan County, AL, Pickens County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Walker County, AL, Winston County, AL, Alcorn County, MS, Clay County, MS, Itawamba County, MS, Lee County, MS, Lowndes County, MS, Monroe County, MS, Oktibbeha County, MS, Prentiss County, MS, Tishomingo County, MS, Decatur County, TN, Giles County, TN, Hardin County, TN, Lawrence County, TN, Lewis County, TN, Marshall County, TN, Maury County, TN, Perry County, TN, Wayne County, TN

The radar

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 55 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 07:31 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.

The watches that followed

Watches SPC issued over any of the same counties within four hours of this discussion.

Tornado Watch 59Apr 4, 2:55 AM CDT

The nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 00:00Z, 7.5 hours before the alert went out and 159 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 2046 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 44 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 86 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 243 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

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SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 4, 2:52 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Blount, Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Fayette, Franklin and 17 more	5 hr
Apr 4, 5:28 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bibb, Blount, Cullman, DeKalb, Etowah, Fayette and 16 more	92 min
Apr 4, 7:00 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Calhoun, Cherokee, Chilton, Clay, Cleburne, Coosa and 4 more	90 min
Apr 4, 10:12 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Sumter	63 min
Apr 3, 10:45 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Benton, Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll, Coahoma, DeSoto and 16 more	60 min
Apr 4, 12:20 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bolivar, Carroll, Claiborne, Coahoma, Copiah, DeSoto and 19 more	55 min
Apr 4, 12:40 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Alcorn, Attala, Benton, Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll and 37 more	5 hr
Apr 4, 3:45 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alcorn, Attala, Benton, Calhoun, Carroll, Chickasaw and 21 more	60 min
Apr 4, 5:04 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Amite, Copiah, Covington, Forrest, Franklin, Jasper and 12 more	116 min
Apr 4, 5:25 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Adams, Amite, Claiborne, Clarke, Copiah, Covington and 31 more	7 hr
Apr 4, 7:22 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Amite, Clarke, Covington, Forrest, Franklin, Hancock and 14 more	83 min
Apr 3, 8:16 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Crockett, Dyer, Gibson, Henry, Lake, Lauderdale and 3 more	59 min
Apr 3, 8:30 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Crockett, Dyer, Gibson, Henry, Lake, Lauderdale and 2 more	7 hr
Apr 3, 11:40 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Crockett, Dyer, Gibson, Henry, Lake, Lauderdale and 2 more	95 min
Apr 4, 1:39 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Houston, Humphreys, Macon and 6 more	3 hr
Apr 4, 2:12 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Dyer, Gibson, Henry, Obion, Stewart, Weakley	63 min
Apr 4, 4:42 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Campbell, Clay, Fentress, Jackson, Macon, Morgan and 7 more	93 min
Apr 4, 4:58 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Anderson, Bledsoe, Campbell, Claiborne, Hamilton, Hancock and 8 more	5 hr
Apr 4, 7:41 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Meigs, Morgan, Rhea and 3 more	49 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Alabama, 2014 Mesoscale Discussions in Mississippi, 2014 Mesoscale Discussions in Tennessee, 2014 Every mesoscale discussion in 2014

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.