Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Watches in 2024

Tornado Watch 215

May 9, 202429 counties in Alabama; 21 counties in Mississippi; 20 counties in Tennessee

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 9, 2024, 3:02 AM CDT for 29 counties in Alabama; 21 counties in Mississippi; 20 counties in Tennessee. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 9, 2024, 3:02 AM CDT (08:02 UTC)
Expired: May 9, 2024, 10:00 AM CDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 70 counties

Blount County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Cherokee County, AL, Clay County, AL, Cleburne County, AL, Colbert County, AL, Cullman County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Fayette County, AL, Franklin 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, Pickens County, AL, Randolph County, AL, Shelby County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Walker County, AL, Winston County, AL, Alcorn County, MS, Benton County, MS, Calhoun County, MS, Chickasaw County, MS, Coahoma County, MS, Itawamba County, MS, Lafayette County, MS, Lee County, MS, Marshall County, MS, Monroe County, MS, Panola County, MS, Pontotoc County, MS, Prentiss County, MS, Quitman County, MS, Tallahatchie County, MS, Tate County, MS, Tippah County, MS, Tishomingo County, MS, Tunica County, MS, Union County, MS, Yalobusha County, MS, Bedford County, TN, Cannon County, TN, Coffee County, TN, Franklin County, TN, Giles County, TN, Grundy County, TN, Hardin County, TN, Lawrence County, TN, Lewis County, TN, Lincoln County, TN, Marion County, TN, Marshall County, TN, Maury County, TN, McNairy County, TN, Moore County, TN, Rutherford County, TN, Sequatchie County, TN, Warren County, TN, Wayne County, TN, Williamson County, TN

The radar

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 99 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 08:05 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: 40%
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: 40%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 30%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 70%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 9, 3:08 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Bedford, Giles, Marshall, Maury	37 min
May 9, 3:13 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	OHX	Bedford, Marshall, Maury	32 min
May 9, 3:20 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Giles, Lawrence, Marshall	25 min
May 9, 3:41 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Madison	49 min
May 9, 3:42 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	MRX	Bledsoe, Hamilton, Marion, Meigs, Rhea, Sequatchie	6 hr
May 9, 4:06 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Bledsoe, Hamilton, Rhea, Sequatchie	54 min
May 9, 4:06 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Coffee, Grundy, Warren	26 min
May 9, 4:11 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MRX	Hamilton, Marion, Sequatchie	49 min
May 9, 4:14 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Jackson, Madison	46 min
May 9, 4:21 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	OHX	Grundy	9 min
May 9, 4:23 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	MRX	Bledsoe, Marion, Sequatchie	21 min
May 9, 4:40 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Benton, Marshall	50 min
May 9, 4:41 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Jackson	49 min
May 9, 5:19 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	DeKalb, Jackson	26 min
May 9, 5:30 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cherokee	60 min
May 9, 6:06 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	HUN	Madison	6 hr
May 9, 6:49 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Colbert, Franklin, Lawrence	41 min
May 9, 7:00 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	HUN	Colbert, Lauderdale	3 hr
May 9, 7:49 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Cullman	41 min
May 9, 7:57 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Blount	48 min
May 9, 8:04 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Cullman, DeKalb, Jackson, Marshall, Morgan	26 min
May 9, 8:08 AM CDT	Tornado Warning	HUN	DeKalb, Jackson	27 min
May 9, 8:27 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Etowah, St. Clair	48 min
May 9, 8:28 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	DeKalb, Marshall	20 min
May 9, 8:31 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Jefferson	44 min
May 9, 8:34 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	HUN	DeKalb, Jackson	116 min
May 9, 8:48 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Cherokee	42 min
May 9, 8:53 AM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	HUN	Cullman, DeKalb, Jackson, Limestone, Madison, Marshall and 1 more	3 hr
May 9, 8:57 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Calhoun, St. Clair, Shelby, Talladega	63 min
May 9, 9:46 AM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Clay, Cleburne, Randolph	59 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 00:00Z, 8.0 hours before the alert went out and 148 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: 3301 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -24 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 746 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 46 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 135 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 221 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 2.9
Supercell composite: 13.7

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 8, 7:42 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale and 5 more	2 hr
May 8, 10:11 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	DeKalb, Jackson, Limestone, Madison, Marshall	5 hr
May 8, 10:50 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	DeKalb, Jackson, Madison	85 min
May 9, 2:10 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale and 7 more	2 hr
May 9, 4:26 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cherokee, DeKalb, Etowah, Jackson, Madison, Marshall	2 hr
May 9, 7:48 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Calhoun and 33 more	117 min
May 9, 8:51 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Calhoun, Chambers and 22 more	6 hr
May 9, 9:39 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barbour, Bullock, Chambers, Dale, Elmore, Henry and 5 more	96 min
May 9, 12:47 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Dale, Henry, Houston	7 hr
May 9, 4:39 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Chilton, Coosa and 20 more	96 min
May 9, 4:58 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Chambers, Chilton and 25 more	6 hr
May 8, 7:29 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alcorn, DeSoto	61 min
May 8, 8:13 PM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Benton, DeSoto, Marshall, Tate, Tippah, Tunica	7 hr
May 8, 11:51 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alcorn, DeSoto	114 min
May 9, 6:24 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Attala, Bolivar, Carroll, Grenada, Holmes, Humphreys and 11 more	96 min
May 9, 4:45 AM CDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bradley, Hamilton, Polk	9 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Alabama, 2024 Tornado Watches in Mississippi, 2024 Tornado Watches in Tennessee, 2024 Every tornado watch in 2024

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.