Alert archive / Georgia / Tornado Watches in 2024

Tornado Watch 218

May 9, 202412 counties in Georgia; 8 counties in South Carolina

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 9, 2024, 12:12 PM EDT for 12 counties in Georgia; 8 counties in South Carolina. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 9, 2024, 12:12 PM EDT (16:12 UTC)
Expired: May 9, 2024, 4:43 PM EDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

Counties Bryan County, GA, Bulloch County, GA, Candler County, GA, Chatham County, GA, Effingham County, GA, Evans County, GA, Jenkins County, GA, Liberty County, GA, Long County, GA, McIntosh County, GA, Screven County, GA, Tattnall County, GA, Allendale County, SC, Beaufort County, SC, Berkeley County, SC, Charleston County, SC, Colleton County, SC, Dorchester County, SC, Hampton County, SC, Jasper County, SC

The radar

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 7 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 16:14 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: 10%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 30%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 20%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 9, 12:25 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Colleton, Dorchester	65 min
May 9, 12:38 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Jenkins, Screven	67 min
May 9, 1:04 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester	41 min
May 9, 1:19 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Bulloch, Screven	56 min
May 9, 1:43 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester	62 min
May 9, 1:54 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	CHS	Candler, Evans, Tattnall	66 min
May 9, 1:59 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	CHS	Candler, Evans, Tattnall	31 min
May 9, 2:09 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Bulloch, Effingham, Screven	51 min
May 9, 2:18 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	CHS	Bryan, Bulloch, Candler, Evans, Liberty, Long and 1 more	57 min
May 9, 2:33 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	CHS	Liberty, Long, Tattnall	42 min
May 9, 2:48 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Bryan, Bulloch, Chatham, Effingham, Liberty	57 min
May 9, 3:03 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Bryan, Chatham, Liberty, Long, McIntosh	57 min
May 9, 3:04 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Bryan, Liberty, Long, McIntosh	56 min
May 9, 3:37 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS	Bryan, Chatham	38 min
May 9, 3:58 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	CHS	McIntosh	35 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

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 12:00Z, 4.2 hours before the alert went out and 103 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: 763 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -8 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 627 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 140 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.2
Supercell composite: 1.8

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, 5:45 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Baldwin, Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Bibb, Burke and 75 more	9 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, 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

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Georgia, 2024 Tornado Watches in South 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.