Alert archive / Tennessee / Tornado Watches in 2024

Tornado Watch 326

May 26, 2024Cherokee County, Clay County, North Carolina; 76 counties in Tennessee

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 26, 2024, 10:43 PM EDT for Cherokee County, Clay County, North Carolina; 76 counties in Tennessee. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 26, 2024, 10:43 PM EDT (02:43 UTC)
Expired: May 27, 2024, 6:00 AM EDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2 in
Strongest gust expected: 70 kt

All 78 counties

Cherokee County, NC, Clay County, NC, Anderson County, TN, Bedford County, TN, Bledsoe County, TN, Blount County, TN, Bradley County, TN, Campbell County, TN, Cannon County, TN, Cheatham County, TN, Chester County, TN, Claiborne County, TN, Clay County, TN, Coffee County, TN, Cumberland County, TN, Davidson County, TN, Decatur County, TN, DeKalb County, TN, Dickson County, TN, Fentress County, TN, Franklin County, TN, Giles County, TN, Grainger County, TN, Grundy County, TN, Hamblen County, TN, Hamilton County, TN, Hancock County, TN, Hardeman County, TN, Hardin County, TN, Hawkins County, TN, Haywood County, TN, Henderson County, TN, Hickman County, TN, Houston County, TN, Humphreys County, TN, Jackson County, TN, Jefferson County, TN, Knox County, TN, Lawrence County, TN, Lewis County, TN, Lincoln County, TN, Loudon County, TN, Macon County, TN, Madison County, TN, Marion County, TN, Marshall County, TN, Maury County, TN, McMinn County, TN, McNairy County, TN, Meigs County, TN, Monroe County, TN, Montgomery County, TN, Moore County, TN, Morgan County, TN, Overton County, TN, Perry County, TN, Pickett County, TN, Polk County, TN, Putnam County, TN, Rhea County, TN, Roane County, TN, Robertson County, TN, Rutherford County, TN, Scott County, TN, Sequatchie County, TN, Sevier County, TN, Smith County, TN, Stewart County, TN, Sumner County, TN, Tipton County, TN, Trousdale County, TN, Union County, TN, Van Buren County, TN, Warren County, TN, Wayne County, TN, White County, TN, Williamson County, TN, Wilson County, TN

The radar

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 61 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 02:47 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: 60%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 40%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 90%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 70%
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: 95%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 26, 11:00 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Cheatham, Houston, Montgomery, Robertson, Stewart	60 min
May 27, 12:30 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Benton, Carroll, Decatur, Dyer, Gibson, Henry and 3 more	45 min
May 27, 12:40 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Shelby, Tipton	50 min
May 27, 1:11 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	OHX	Fentress, Overton, Pickett	34 min
May 27, 1:21 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Fayette, Hardeman, Haywood, Shelby, Tipton	39 min
May 27, 1:23 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Campbell, Morgan, Scott	52 min
May 27, 1:45 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MEG	Chester, Fayette, Hardeman, Haywood, McNairy, Madison	45 min
May 27, 1:46 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Lincoln	44 min
May 27, 1:53 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MEG	Benton, Carroll, Chester, Crockett, Decatur, Gibson and 3 more	52 min
May 27, 1:58 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MEG	Chester, Hardeman, Hardin, Henderson, Madison	47 min
May 27, 2:19 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MEG	Chester, Decatur, Hardin, Henderson, McNairy	41 min
May 27, 2:21 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Campbell, Claiborne, Union	54 min
May 27, 2:26 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MEG	Chester, Decatur, Hardeman, Hardin, Henderson, McNairy	64 min
May 27, 2:28 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Franklin, Lincoln	62 min
May 27, 2:36 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	OHX	Hickman, Lawrence, Lewis, Maury, Perry, Wayne	69 min
May 27, 2:38 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	MEG	Chester, Decatur, Henderson	35 min
May 27, 2:51 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	HUN	Franklin	39 min
May 27, 2:57 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger, Knox, Morgan and 2 more	48 min
May 27, 3:07 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Union	37 min
May 27, 3:14 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MRX	Claiborne, Hancock	46 min
May 27, 3:25 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	HUN	Franklin, Lincoln	65 min
May 27, 3:25 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MRX	Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Hawkins	27 min
May 27, 3:26 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Hamilton, Marion, Sequatchie	49 min
May 27, 3:28 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Cocke, Grainger, Hamblen, Hawkins, Jefferson, Knox and 1 more	30 min
May 27, 3:41 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Grainger, Greene, Hancock, Hawkins	49 min
May 27, 3:56 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Cocke, Greene, Hawkins, Sevier, Unicoi, Washington	49 min
May 27, 4:03 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Bradley, Hamilton, McMinn, Marion, Meigs, Sequatchie	57 min
May 27, 4:06 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	HUN	Franklin, Lincoln	3 hr
May 27, 4:49 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Cherokee	56 min
May 27, 4:56 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	MRX	Bradley, Hamilton	3 hr
May 27, 5:18 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	MRX	Sevier	4 hr
May 27, 5:23 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Cherokee, Clay	53 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

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), launched 00:00Z, 2.7 hours before the alert went out and 52 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: 1289 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -112 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1123 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 60 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 359 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 533 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.3
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 26, 8:27 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alexander, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland and 19 more	93 min
May 26, 10:05 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Harnett, Johnston and 7 more	85 min
May 27, 3:47 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and 3 more	118 min
May 27, 6:13 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Gaston, Mecklenburg, Union	2 hr
May 27, 2:37 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Anson, Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick and 47 more	83 min
May 27, 3:39 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven and 34 more	7 hr
May 27, 4:49 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Craven, Currituck and 22 more	86 min
May 26, 9:21 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Henry, Lake, Obion, Weakley	84 min
May 26, 10:39 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bedford, Benton, Cannon, Carroll, Cheatham, Chester and 36 more	96 min
May 26, 11:39 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Benton, Carroll, Crockett, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson and 10 more	5 hr
May 27, 1:52 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bedford, Chester, Coffee, Decatur, Fayette, Franklin and 15 more	113 min
May 27, 3:05 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Claiborne, Grainger, Greene, Hamblen, Hancock, Hawkins and 4 more	55 min

Nearby

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.