Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Watches in 2019
Tornado Watch 703
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Dec 16, 2019, 9:47 PM CST for 30 counties in Alabama. It was in force for 6 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Dec 16, 2019, 9:47 PM CST (03:47 UTC)
- Expired
- Dec 17, 2019, 4:00 AM CST
- In force
- 6 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 1 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 30 counties
Autauga County, AL, Bibb County, AL, Blount County, AL, Butler County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Chambers County, AL, Cherokee County, AL, Chilton County, AL, Clarke County, AL, Clay County, AL, Cleburne County, AL, Conecuh County, AL, Coosa County, AL, Crenshaw County, AL, Dallas County, AL, Elmore County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Jefferson County, AL, Lee County, AL, Lowndes County, AL, Macon County, AL, Monroe County, AL, Montgomery County, AL, Perry County, AL, Randolph County, AL, Shelby County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tallapoosa County, AL, Wilcox County, AL
The radar
The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 61 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 03:50 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
- 50%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 20%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 40%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 20%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 20%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 10%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 60%
Warnings issued inside it
2 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 16, 9:59 PM CST | Tornado Warning | BMX | Bibb, Chilton, Shelby | 31 min |
| Dec 16, 10:21 PM CST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Coosa | 39 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, 3.8 hours before the alert went out and 62 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
- 211 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -85 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 686 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 58 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 286 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 288 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.2
- Supercell composite
- 1.7
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 16, 6:05 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Cherokee, DeKalb, Etowah, Jackson, Madison, Marshall | 55 min |
| Dec 16, 6:12 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Sumter | 2 hr |
| Dec 16, 7:57 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Choctaw, Dallas, Hale, Marengo, Perry, Sumter | 93 min |
| Dec 16, 8:58 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Autauga, Baldwin, Bibb, Butler, Chilton, Choctaw and 19 more | 92 min |
| Dec 17, 2:13 AM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Barbour, Coffee, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Geneva and 3 more | 92 min |
| Dec 17, 6:54 AM CST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Henry, Houston | 7 hr |
| Dec 16, 11:11 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Carroll, Chattahoochee, Clayton, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas and 16 more | 64 min |
| Dec 17, 9:29 AM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Baker, Calhoun, Colquitt, Cook, Decatur, Dougherty and 11 more | 91 min |
| Dec 17, 10:32 AM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley and 25 more | 88 min |
| Dec 17, 10:58 AM CST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Brantley, Bryan, Camden and 19 more | 5 hr |
| Dec 17, 1:58 PM CST | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Brantley, Camden, Charlton, Glynn, Liberty, Long and 4 more | 92 min |
Nearby
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.