Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Watches in 2023

Tornado Watch 17

January 12, 202333 counties in Alabama; 26 counties in Mississippi

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Jan 12, 2023, 6:59 AM CST for 33 counties in Alabama; 26 counties in Mississippi. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jan 12, 2023, 6:59 AM CST (12:59 UTC)
Expired: Jan 12, 2023, 2:09 PM CST
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 65 kt

All 59 counties

Bibb County, AL, Blount County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Cherokee County, AL, Chilton County, AL, Colbert County, AL, Coosa County, AL, Cullman County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Fayette County, AL, Franklin County, AL, Greene County, AL, Hale County, AL, Jackson County, AL, Jefferson County, AL, Lamar County, AL, Lauderdale County, AL, Lawrence County, AL, Limestone County, AL, Madison County, AL, Marion County, AL, Marshall County, AL, Morgan County, AL, Perry County, AL, Pickens County, AL, Shelby County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Sumter County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Walker County, AL, Winston County, AL, Clarke County, MS, Clay County, MS, Covington County, MS, Forrest County, MS, Itawamba County, MS, Jasper County, MS, Jefferson Davis County, MS, Jones County, MS, Kemper County, MS, Lamar County, MS, Lauderdale County, MS, Lawrence County, MS, Leake County, MS, Lowndes County, MS, Marion County, MS, Monroe County, MS, Neshoba County, MS, Newton County, MS, Noxubee County, MS, Oktibbeha County, MS, Rankin County, MS, Scott County, MS, Simpson County, MS, Smith County, MS, Tishomingo County, MS, Winston County, MS

The radar

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 73 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 12:59 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: 70%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 30%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 60%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 30%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 40%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 20%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 12, 7:10 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Hinds, Leake, Madison, Rankin, Scott	65 min
Jan 12, 7:14 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Colbert, Lauderdale	31 min
Jan 12, 7:19 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Kemper, Leake, Neshoba, Winston	56 min
Jan 12, 7:30 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Kemper, Lauderdale, Leake, Neshoba, Newton, Scott	45 min
Jan 12, 7:44 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Colbert, Franklin, Lawrence	31 min
Jan 12, 7:48 AM CST	Tornado Warning	HUN	Franklin, Lawrence	27 min
Jan 12, 7:58 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Copiah, Lawrence, Lincoln, Simpson	47 min
Jan 12, 8:06 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Jefferson Davis, Lawrence, Lincoln	39 min
Jan 12, 8:07 AM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Winston	24 min
Jan 12, 8:12 AM CST	Tornado Warning	HUN	Lawrence, Limestone, Morgan	33 min
Jan 12, 8:15 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Kemper, Neshoba, Noxubee	45 min
Jan 12, 8:19 AM CST	Tornado Warning	JAN	Jefferson Davis, Lawrence	43 min
Jan 12, 8:27 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Cullman, Lawrence, Morgan	33 min
Jan 12, 8:34 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Simpson, Smith	41 min
Jan 12, 8:35 AM CST	Tornado Warning	HUN	Limestone, Madison, Morgan	25 min
Jan 12, 8:38 AM CST	Tornado Warning	JAN	Kemper, Noxubee	46 min
Jan 12, 8:43 AM CST	Tornado Warning	JAN	Kemper, Lauderdale, Neshoba, Newton	42 min
Jan 12, 8:53 AM CST	Tornado Warning	JAN	Covington, Jones	16 min
Jan 12, 8:54 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Limestone, Madison, Marshall, Morgan	36 min
Jan 12, 8:57 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Limestone, Madison	22 min
Jan 12, 8:58 AM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Greene, Sumter	62 min
Jan 12, 9:08 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Walker, Winston	37 min
Jan 12, 9:16 AM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Walker, Winston	3 min
Jan 12, 9:18 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Jackson, Madison	27 min
Jan 12, 9:20 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Cullman	25 min
Jan 12, 9:21 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Lauderdale, Newton	39 min
Jan 12, 9:42 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Jackson	33 min
Jan 12, 9:43 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Cullman, Marshall	16 min
Jan 12, 9:51 AM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Greene, Hale, Tuscaloosa	54 min
Jan 12, 9:54 AM CST	Tornado Warning	JAN	Kemper, Lauderdale	21 min
Jan 12, 9:55 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Sumter	50 min
Jan 12, 9:56 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	DeKalb, Jackson	34 min
Jan 12, 10:00 AM CST	Tornado Warning	HUN	DeKalb, Jackson	30 min
Jan 12, 10:12 AM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Greene, Hale, Marengo, Sumter	63 min
Jan 12, 10:12 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Clarke	33 min
Jan 12, 10:18 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Clarke	27 min
Jan 12, 10:25 AM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Bibb, Tuscaloosa	32 min
Jan 12, 10:49 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	JAN	Clarke, Jasper, Jones	41 min
Jan 12, 10:53 AM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Perry	45 min
Jan 12, 11:14 AM CST	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	BMX	Bibb	45 min
Jan 12, 11:16 AM CST	Flash Flood Warning	JAN	Clarke, Jasper, Jones	47 min
Jan 12, 11:19 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Shelby	41 min
Jan 12, 11:32 AM CST	Tornado Warning	BMX	Dallas, Perry	58 min
Jan 12, 11:36 AM CST	Tornado Warning Tornado observed	BMX	Chilton	54 min
Jan 12, 11:38 AM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	BMX	St. Clair, Talladega	52 min
Jan 12, 12:09 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	BMX	Calhoun, Cleburne	45 min
Jan 12, 12:17 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Coosa, Shelby, Talladega	43 min
Jan 12, 12:29 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Calhoun, Cherokee, Cleburne	25 min
Jan 12, 12:50 PM CST	Tornado Warning EmergencyTornado observed	BMX	Chilton, Coosa, Elmore	55 min
Jan 12, 1:09 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	BMX	Autauga, Coosa, Elmore	51 min
Jan 12, 2:02 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Madison	28 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 12:00Z, 1.0 hours before the alert went out and 91 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: 497 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 650 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 55 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 248 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 321 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.6
Supercell composite: 3.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 12, 6:38 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bibb, Colbert, Cullman, Fayette, Franklin, Greene and 12 more	2 hr
Jan 12, 9:01 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Greene, Hale, Sumter, Tuscaloosa	119 min
Jan 12, 9:54 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bibb, Greene, Hale, Marengo, Perry, Sumter	96 min
Jan 12, 10:20 AM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Autauga, Baldwin, Butler, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh and 12 more	7 hr
Jan 12, 10:52 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bullock, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne and 7 more	53 min
Jan 12, 11:36 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Autauga, Chilton, Coosa, Dallas, Perry	84 min
Jan 12, 12:06 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Barbour, Bullock, Chambers, Clay, Cleburne, Lee and 5 more	8 hr
Jan 12, 1:00 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Elmore, Tallapoosa	60 min
Jan 12, 1:19 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barbour, Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston	116 min
Jan 12, 1:55 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Colbert, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Morgan	65 min
Jan 12, 2:01 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Chambers	119 min
Jan 12, 2:06 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baldwin, Butler, Coffee, Conecuh, Covington, Crenshaw and 4 more	114 min
Jan 12, 2:36 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Henry, Houston	6 hr
Jan 12, 3:43 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barbour, Dale, Henry	92 min
Jan 12, 9:13 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Gordon and 4 more	62 min
Jan 12, 10:03 AM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Dade, Dawson and 11 more	6 hr
Jan 12, 3:16 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Columbia, Elbert, Franklin, Hart, Lincoln, Stephens	59 min
Jan 12, 3:41 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Burke, Columbia, Elbert, Franklin, Hart, Lincoln and 3 more	3 hr
Jan 12, 5:12 PM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bleckley, Calhoun, Colquitt, Crisp, Dodge, Dooly and 15 more	93 min
Jan 12, 3:07 AM CST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Attala, Carroll, Choctaw, Claiborne, Copiah and 19 more	3 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Alabama, 2023 Tornado Watches in Mississippi, 2023 Every tornado watch in 2023

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.