Alert archive / Alabama / Mesoscale Discussions in 2015

Mesoscale Discussion 16

January 3, 201517 counties in Alabama

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Jan 3, 2015, 5:59 PM CST for 17 counties in Alabama. It was in force for 61 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jan 3, 2015, 5:59 PM CST (23:59 UTC)
Expired: Jan 3, 2015, 7:00 PM CST
In force: 61 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

Counties Bibb County, AL, Colbert County, AL, Cullman County, AL, Fayette County, AL, Franklin County, AL, Greene County, AL, Hale County, AL, Lawrence County, AL, Limestone County, AL, Marengo County, AL, Marion County, AL, Morgan County, AL, Perry County, AL, Sumter County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Walker County, AL, Winston County, AL

The radar

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 82 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:04 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 nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 12.0 hours before the alert went out and 90 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: 471 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 50 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 266 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 377 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
Jan 3, 12:00 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baldwin, Mobile	90 min
Jan 3, 1:43 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Choctaw, Sumter, Washington	92 min
Jan 3, 2:54 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bibb, Choctaw, Clarke, Dallas, Fayette, Greene and 11 more	96 min
Jan 3, 3:18 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Autauga, Bibb, Blount, Chilton, Dallas, Fayette and 15 more	5 hr
Jan 3, 4:47 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Autauga, Butler, Chilton, Conecuh, Coosa, Crenshaw and 6 more	58 min
Jan 3, 5:31 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Choctaw	44 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Alabama, 2015 Every mesoscale discussion in 2015

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.