Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Watches in 2024
Tornado Watch 217
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 9, 2024, 8:51 AM CDT for 28 counties in Alabama; 25 counties in Georgia. It was in force for 6 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 9, 2024, 8:51 AM CDT (13:51 UTC)
- Expired
- May 9, 2024, 3:03 PM CDT
- In force
- 6 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 2 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 53 counties
Autauga County, AL, Barbour County, AL, Bibb County, AL, Bullock County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Chambers County, AL, Chilton County, AL, Clay County, AL, Cleburne County, AL, Coosa County, AL, Dallas County, AL, Elmore County, AL, Hale County, AL, Jefferson County, AL, Lee County, AL, Lowndes County, AL, Macon County, AL, Marengo County, AL, Montgomery County, AL, Perry County, AL, Pike County, AL, Randolph County, AL, Russell County, AL, Shelby County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tallapoosa County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Bleckley County, GA, Chattahoochee County, GA, Crisp County, GA, Dodge County, GA, Dooly County, GA, Emanuel County, GA, Harris County, GA, Johnson County, GA, Laurens County, GA, Macon County, GA, Marion County, GA, Montgomery County, GA, Muscogee County, GA, Pulaski County, GA, Schley County, GA, Stewart County, GA, Sumter County, GA, Talbot County, GA, Taylor County, GA, Telfair County, GA, Toombs County, GA, Treutlen County, GA, Webster County, GA, Wheeler County, GA, Wilcox County, GA
The radar
The Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 33 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 13:53 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
- 80%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 10%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 60%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 30%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 95%
Warnings issued inside it
18 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 9, 8:57 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Calhoun, St. Clair, Shelby, Talladega | 63 min |
| May 9, 9:36 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Talbot, Taylor | 24 min |
| May 9, 9:43 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Harris, Talbot | 32 min |
| May 9, 9:46 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX | Clay, Cleburne, Randolph | 59 min |
| May 9, 10:16 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Crawford, Macon, Peach, Taylor | 29 min |
| May 9, 10:16 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Harris, Talbot | 29 min |
| May 9, 10:53 AM CDT | Flash Flood Warning | BMX | Clay, Talladega | 3 hr |
| May 9, 11:30 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Macon, Marion, Schley, Sumter, Webster | 45 min |
| May 9, 11:32 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Bleckley, Dodge, Houston, Laurens, Pulaski, Twiggs | 43 min |
| May 9, 11:33 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | FFC | Macon, Marion, Schley, Sumter | 27 min |
| May 9, 11:56 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | FFC | Dodge, Laurens | 34 min |
| May 9, 12:02 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FFC | Dooly, Macon, Schley, Sumter | 43 min |
| May 9, 12:09 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FFC | Dodge, Laurens, Montgomery, Treutlen, Wheeler | 35 min |
| May 9, 12:28 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FFC | Crisp, Dooly, Wilcox | 27 min |
| May 9, 12:35 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Montgomery, Toombs, Wheeler | 40 min |
| May 9, 12:43 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FFC | Montgomery, Toombs, Wheeler | 32 min |
| May 9, 12:54 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Dodge, Telfair, Wilcox | 51 min |
| May 9, 1:28 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FFC | Stewart, Sumter, Webster | 47 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 12:00Z, 1.9 hours before the alert went out and 120 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
- 1170 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -3 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 597 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 32 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 98 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 1.7
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, 3:02 AM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Colbert and 23 more | 7 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, 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, 9:31 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Elbert, Franklin, Habersham, Hart, Rabun, Stephens and 1 more | 89 min |
| May 9, 1:16 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke and 24 more | 119 min |
| May 9, 4:45 AM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Baldwin, Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Bibb, Burke and 75 more | 9 hr |
| May 9, 11:12 AM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Bryan, Bulloch, Candler, Chatham, Effingham, Evans and 6 more | 5 hr |
| May 9, 12:25 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley and 35 more | 95 min |
| May 9, 3:36 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Camden, Charlton, Clinch, Echols, Glynn, Ware | 54 min |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in Alabama, 2024Tornado Watches in Georgia, 2024Every 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.