Name: Hail in Alabama, May 27, 2001
Start: 2001-05-27T21:58
End: 2001-05-27T21:58
Location: Alabama

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Birmingham, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 27, 8:01 PM CST, 1 hour 57 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 27, 8:01 PM CST, 1 hour 57 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM, AL
901 PM CDT SUN MAY 27 2001

BEEN CHASING THUNDERSTORMS AS SCATTERED STORMS CONTINUE TO FLARE
ACROSS THE CWA THIS EVENING.  WHILE THE THREAT OF SEVERE WEATHER
SEEMS TO HAVE DIMINISHED, THE SPC HAS KEPT MUCH OF OUR CWA WITHIN
THE SLIGHT RISK SO WILL CONTINUE THE POSSIBLY SEVERE WORDING.  WILL
CUT BACK ON THAT WORDING IN SOUTHEAST AND EAST CENTRAL SECTIONS.
THUNDERSTORMS HAVE BEEN FIRING UUP QUICKLY PRODUCING SOME SMALL
HAIL AND LIGHTNING.

LARGE COMPLEX OF THUNDERSTORMS THAT DEVELOPED SOUTH OF MEMPHIS ALONG
MS RIVER HAS PUSHED AN AREA OF RAIN THAT HAS ENTERED WEST CENTRAL
ALABAMA.  DEWPOINT DISCONTINUITY WAS LYING FROM THE MEMPHIS AREA
SOUTHEASTWARD TO APPROXIMATELY ANNISTON.  THIS BOUNDARY WAS
GRADUALLY SHIFTING NORTHEASTWARD WITH MOST OF THE SHOWERS ALONG THE
BOUNDARY AND BEHIND IT.

WILL MAKE MINOR ADJUSTMENTS TO FORECAST WITH UPDATE SHORTLY.
TEMPERATURES LOOKS REASONABLE.

-57-

.BHM...NONE.

In the hours before

Local storm report, May 27, 8:40 PM CST, 1 hour 18 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
940 PM CDT SUN MAY 27 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0906 PM    ANNISTON                  AL   0.75 INCH HAIL
05/27/01   CALHOUN                        CALHOUN CTY 911 REPORTED
                                          SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN
                                          DIME SIZE HAIL IN ANB

0915 PM    5E ANNISTON               AL   1.75 INCH HAIL
05/27/01   CALHOUN                        SPOTTER REPORTED GOLF
                                          BALL SIZE HAIL WITH
                                          SMALLER HQAIL FROM 909 PM
                                          TO 915 PM EAST SIDE ANB

The radar

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 03:56 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Bibb

When: May 27, 9:58 PM CST
Where: Bibb County, West Blocton
Measured: 1 in hail
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 33.117, -87.117

One inch diameter size hail was observed just south of West Blocton on SR 5.

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Alabama in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Alabama, May 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5244638.