Alert archive / Alabama / Mesoscale Discussions in 2026

Mesoscale Discussion 2018

August 17, 202612 counties in Alabama; 6 counties in Mississippi; Lincoln County, Tennessee

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Aug 17, 2026, 6:04 PM CDT for 12 counties in Alabama; 6 counties in Mississippi; Lincoln County, Tennessee. It was in force for 116 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Aug 17, 2026, 6:04 PM CDT (23:04 UTC)
Expired: Aug 17, 2026, 8:00 PM CDT
In force: 116 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Concerning: Severe potential...watch unlikely
Chance of a watch: 5%

Counties Colbert County, AL, Cullman County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Franklin County, AL, Jackson County, AL, Lawrence County, AL, Limestone County, AL, Madison County, AL, Marion County, AL, Marshall County, AL, Morgan County, AL, Winston County, AL, Itawamba County, MS, Lee County, MS, Prentiss County, MS, Tippah County, MS, Tishomingo County, MS, Union County, MS, Lincoln County, TN

The radar

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 116 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:06 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.

The nearest sounding before it

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 11.1 hours before the alert went out and 165 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: 2155 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -59 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1271 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -1 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted.

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SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 17, 12:49 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Bledsoe, Blount, Campbell, Carter, Claiborne and 25 more	116 min
Aug 17, 1:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Anderson, Bledsoe, Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Cannon and 38 more	7 hr
Aug 17, 4:49 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Blount, Bradley, Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamilton and 8 more	116 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Alabama, 2026 Mesoscale Discussions in Mississippi, 2026 Mesoscale Discussions in Tennessee, 2026 Every mesoscale discussion in 2026

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.