Alert archive / Alabama / Tornado Watches in 2026

Tornado Watch 187

May 6, 202651 counties in Alabama

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 6, 2026, 2:39 PM CDT for 51 counties in Alabama. It was in force for 8 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 6, 2026, 2:39 PM CDT (19:39 UTC)
Expired: May 6, 2026, 11:00 PM CDT
In force: 8 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 51 counties

Autauga County, AL, Barbour County, AL, Bibb County, AL, Blount County, AL, Bullock County, AL, Butler County, AL, Calhoun County, AL, Chambers County, AL, Cherokee County, AL, Chilton County, AL, Choctaw County, AL, Clarke County, AL, Clay County, AL, Cleburne County, AL, Conecuh County, AL, Coosa County, AL, Crenshaw County, AL, Cullman County, AL, Dallas County, AL, DeKalb County, AL, Elmore County, AL, Etowah County, AL, Fayette County, AL, Greene County, AL, Hale County, AL, Jefferson County, AL, Lamar County, AL, Lee County, AL, Lowndes County, AL, Macon County, AL, Marengo County, AL, Marion County, AL, Marshall County, AL, Monroe County, AL, Montgomery County, AL, Morgan County, AL, Perry County, AL, Pickens County, AL, Pike County, AL, Randolph County, AL, Russell County, AL, Shelby County, AL, St. Clair County, AL, Sumter County, AL, Talladega County, AL, Tallapoosa County, AL, Tuscaloosa County, AL, Walker County, AL, Washington County, AL, Wilcox County, AL, Winston County, AL

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: 60%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 30%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 30%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

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 6, 4:02 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Autauga, Dallas, Elmore, Lowndes, Montgomery	58 min
May 6, 4:13 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Autauga, Lowndes, Montgomery	62 min
May 6, 4:58 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Bullock, Elmore, Macon, Montgomery	47 min
May 6, 5:07 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BMX	Bullock, Macon, Montgomery	30 min
May 6, 5:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	BMX	Barbour, Bullock, Macon, Russell	61 min
May 6, 6:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	BMX	Greene, Hale, Sumter	72 min
May 6, 6:08 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	BMX	Autauga, Elmore, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery	3 hr
May 6, 7:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	BMX	Greene, Hale, Marengo, Perry, Sumter	64 min
May 6, 7:49 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	BMX	Dallas	26 min
May 6, 8:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BMX	Greene, Hale, Marengo, Perry, Sumter	23 min
May 6, 8:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Washington	49 min
May 6, 8:43 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	BMX	Dallas, Greene, Hale, Marengo, Perry, Sumter	3 hr
May 6, 9:05 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Clarke, Washington	40 min
May 6, 9:09 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	BMX	Autauga, Bullock, Elmore, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery and 1 more	3 hr
May 6, 9:31 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Monroe	44 min
May 6, 10:19 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Butler, Conecuh	41 min
May 6, 10:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Choctaw	25 min
May 6, 10:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MOB	Butler, Crenshaw	50 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

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), launched 12:00Z, 7.7 hours before the alert went out and 3 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 709 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 65 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 217 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 254 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 6, 12:54 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Colbert, Lauderdale	2 hr
May 6, 11:57 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Choctaw, Clarke, Greene, Marengo, Mobile, Sumter and 1 more	3 hr
May 6, 3:14 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Choctaw, Washington	2 hr
May 6, 4:37 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Butler and 37 more	113 min
May 6, 4:45 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Cherokee, DeKalb, Jackson	2 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Alabama, 2026 Every tornado watch 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.