Alert archive / Georgia / Tornado Watches in 2024

Tornado Watch 216

May 9, 202481 counties in Georgia; Cherokee County, Clay County, North Carolina; Bradley County, Hamilton County, Polk County, Tennessee

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 9, 2024, 5:45 AM EDT for 81 counties in Georgia; Cherokee County, Clay County, North Carolina; Bradley County, Hamilton County, Polk County, Tennessee. It was in force for 9 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 9, 2024, 5:45 AM EDT (09:45 UTC)
Expired: May 9, 2024, 2:36 PM EDT
In force: 9 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 86 counties

Baldwin County, GA, Banks County, GA, Barrow County, GA, Bartow County, GA, Bibb County, GA, Burke County, GA, Butts County, GA, Carroll County, GA, Catoosa County, GA, Chattooga County, GA, Cherokee County, GA, Clarke County, GA, Clayton County, GA, Cobb County, GA, Columbia County, GA, Coweta County, GA, Crawford County, GA, Dawson County, GA, DeKalb County, GA, Douglas County, GA, Elbert County, GA, Fannin County, GA, Fayette County, GA, Floyd County, GA, Forsyth County, GA, Franklin County, GA, Fulton County, GA, Gilmer County, GA, Glascock County, GA, Gordon County, GA, Greene County, GA, Gwinnett County, GA, Habersham County, GA, Hall County, GA, Hancock County, GA, Haralson County, GA, Hart County, GA, Heard County, GA, Henry County, GA, Houston County, GA, Jackson County, GA, Jasper County, GA, Jefferson County, GA, Jones County, GA, Lamar County, GA, Lincoln County, GA, Lumpkin County, GA, Madison County, GA, McDuffie County, GA, Meriwether County, GA, Monroe County, GA, Morgan County, GA, Murray County, GA, Newton County, GA, Oconee County, GA, Oglethorpe County, GA, Paulding County, GA, Peach County, GA, Pickens County, GA, Pike County, GA, Polk County, GA, Putnam County, GA, Rabun County, GA, Richmond County, GA, Rockdale County, GA, Spalding County, GA, Stephens County, GA, Taliaferro County, GA, Towns County, GA, Troup County, GA, Twiggs County, GA, Union County, GA, Upson County, GA, Walker County, GA, Walton County, GA, Warren County, GA, Washington County, GA, White County, GA, Whitfield County, GA, Wilkes County, GA, Wilkinson County, GA, Cherokee County, NC, Clay County, NC, Bradley County, TN, Hamilton County, TN, Polk County, TN

The radar

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 117 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 09:47 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: 60%
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: 20%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 9, 5:53 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Columbia, Lincoln, McDuffie	52 min
May 9, 6:09 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MRX	Bradley, Hamilton	14 min
May 9, 6:12 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Cherokee	63 min
May 9, 6:16 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Fannin, Gilmer, Murray, Union	44 min
May 9, 6:31 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Chattooga, Floyd, Gordon, Murray, Walker, Whitfield	44 min
May 9, 6:55 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Fannin, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Towns, Union, White	55 min
May 9, 7:01 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Bartow, Chattooga, Cherokee, Dawson, Floyd, Gilmer and 3 more	44 min
May 9, 7:01 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Cherokee, Clay	44 min
May 9, 7:24 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Habersham, Rabun	51 min
May 9, 7:33 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Cherokee, Dawson, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Hall	42 min
May 9, 7:42 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Bartow, Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Forsyth and 5 more	48 min
May 9, 7:52 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	Habersham, Stephens	4 hr
May 9, 7:58 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Banks, Barrow, Clarke, Hall, Jackson, Madison	47 min
May 9, 8:16 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Elbert, Franklin, Hart, Stephens	44 min
May 9, 9:01 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Elbert	74 min
May 9, 9:07 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Columbia, Lincoln	38 min
May 9, 11:05 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Carroll, Coweta, Heard	40 min
May 9, 11:16 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Crawford, Macon, Peach, Taylor	29 min
May 9, 12:32 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FFC	Bleckley, Dodge, Houston, Laurens, Pulaski, Twiggs	43 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

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), launched 00:00Z, 9.8 hours before the alert went out and 114 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: 1387 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1252 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 68 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.2
Supercell composite: 2.5

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, 8:42 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Dade, Dawson and 13 more	2 hr
May 8, 10:31 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Elbert, Franklin, Habersham, Hart, Rabun, Stephens and 1 more	89 min
May 8, 11:11 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Banks, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Dawson, Elbert and 17 more	5 hr
May 8, 11:50 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Banks, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Dawson, Fannin and 16 more	85 min
May 9, 2:16 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke and 24 more	119 min
May 9, 3:10 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Walker, Whitfield	2 hr
May 9, 4:02 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Dade	7 hr
May 9, 5:26 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee and 40 more	2 hr
May 9, 8:48 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Baldwin, Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Bibb, Bleckley and 87 more	117 min
May 9, 9:51 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bleckley, Chattahoochee, Crisp, Dodge, Dooly, Emanuel and 19 more	6 hr
May 9, 10:39 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Baldwin, Ben Hill and 83 more	96 min
May 9, 12:12 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bryan, Bulloch, Candler, Chatham, Effingham, Evans and 6 more	5 hr
May 9, 1:25 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley and 35 more	95 min
May 9, 1:47 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Ben Hill, Berrien and 34 more	7 hr
May 9, 4:36 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Camden, Charlton, Clinch, Echols, Glynn, Ware	54 min
May 9, 5:39 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Quitman	96 min
May 8, 8:29 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bedford, Benton, Bledsoe, Cannon, Carroll, Cheatham and 59 more	61 min
May 8, 9:13 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bedford, Benton, Cannon, Carroll, Cheatham, Chester and 53 more	7 hr
May 9, 12:51 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bedford, Benton, Cannon, Carroll, Cheatham, Chester and 42 more	114 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Georgia, 2024 Tornado Watches in Tennessee, 2024 Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 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.