1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
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 Huntsville, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 7, 1:45 PM CST, 9 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HUNTSVILLE AL 245 PM CDT MON JUL 7 2003 .CURRENTLY... LINE OF TSTMS NOW STRETCHING FROM NEAR MS BORDER ALONG THE TN RIVER UP THRU CNTRL LIMESTONE COUNTY. OTHER ISOLATED SHWRS/TSTMS AROUND THE AREA...MOSTLY IN THE ERN COUNTIES. SOME OF THE CLOUD COVER HAS DISSIPATED OUTSIDE OF THE STORMS. S/W STILL LOCATED OVER E CNTRL ARK HAS TAKEN MORE OF A NW-SE ORIENTATION...BUT LOOKS LIKE THE UPR-LVL RIDGING IS BUILDING IN OVER OUR CWA AS PROMISED BY THE MESOETA. 19Z TEMPS WERE 80 TO 85...BUT DEWPTS WERE SLIGHTLY HIGHER THAN PREVIOUS DAYS (HSV WAS AT 74). .SHORT-TERM (TONIGHT-WED NIGHT)... BEYOND ANY CONVECTION THAT MAY LINGER INTO THE EVENING HOURS...TONIGHT LOOKS LARGELY DRY AS ETA BUILDS SFC RIDGE INTO THE AREA. WILL MAKE A GAMETIME DECISION ON WHETHER TO RAISE EVENING POPS BASED ON RADAR TRENDS. TOMORROW LOOKS TO BE A LITTLE MORE NORMAL...AS IT LOOKS LIKE MOSTLY A DIURNAL CONVECTION DAY WITH 500MB RIDGE BUILDING INTO THE AREA. CURRENT 30 POPS FOR TUES...AND 20 POPS FOR TUES NIGHT...BOTH LOOK GOOD. WED...S/W ROUNDS WRN SIDE OF UPR-LVL HIGH AND MOVES INTO THE LA-MS AREA BY 12Z WED. WITH HGTS RISING IN THAT AREA BY 18Z...NOT EXACTLY A TYPICAL CASE...BUT THINK S/W COULD BOOST LIFT ENOUGH TO PROVIDE A LITTLE MORE IN TERMS OF TSTM COVERAGE. WOULDNT GO HIGHER THAN A 40 POP HERE ANYWAY...SO WILL CONTINUE WITH THAT FOR WED. TEMPS...MINS FOR TONIGHT MAY BE A BIT TOO COOL GIVEN CURRENT DEWPTS...AND WILL ADJUST UPWARD SLIGHTLY. ALSO THINK THAT WED MAXES ARE A BIT COOL AHEAD OF THE THEORETICAL COLD FRONT HEADED INTO THE REGION...AND ADJUSTED THEM UP A LITTLE BIT ACCORDINGLY. OTHERWISE...TEMPS MOSTLY UNCHANGED IN THE SHORT TERM. .EXTENDED (THU-MON)... FORECAST PROBLEM OF THE EXTENDED IS THE SAME ONE FROM YESTERDAY AND THE DAY BEFORE. AFTER BACKING OFF ON THE FROPA FOR THURS YESTERDAY...GFS...ECMWF...AND MREFS ALL PUSHING THE IDEA AGAIN. REALLY DONT WANT TO FLIP-FLOP THE FORECAST ALONG WITH THE MODELS... AND STILL NOT SURE ABOUT LIKELIHOOD OF THE FRONT ACTUALLY GETTING THROUGH IN JULY. ENS MOS MEANS COOL TEMPS/DEWPTS ONLY SLIGHTLY BEHIND FROPA...WHILE MEX MOS SHOWS NO COOLING AT ALL. THAT ISNT TERRIBLY CONSISTENT WITH ACTUAL MODEL GIVEN HOW AMPLIFIED THE FORECAST PATTERN IS. CANT HELP BUT WONDER IF SHORT-TERM MODELS WILL BACK OFF AGAIN FOR TOMORROWS FCAST PCKG. ANYWAY...WILL BEGRUDGINGLY GO WITH NEW EXTENDED GUIDANCE FOR NOW...AND WILL MAKE APPROPRIATE ADJUSTMENTS TO GRIDS AND FORECAST. EXTENDED GRIDS MOSTLY BASED ON ENS MOS MEANS...MREFS...AND BLENDING WITH SURROUNDING OFFICES. WITH THIS NEW THINKING...REST OF EXTENDED LOOKS DRY AS HIGH BUILDS IN FROM THE N. .PRELIM NUMBERS... HUNTSVILLE 72/88 71/89 72 23242 SHOALS 73/89 72/90 72 23242 FT PAYNE 70/88 71/89 72 23242 CULLMAN 73/89 72/90 72 23242 .HUN...NONE. BCC/27
ALZ001>010-016-071800- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HUNTSVILLE AL 105 PM CDT MON JUL 7 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTH ALABAMA. .DAY ONE...(THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT)... THE PROBABILITY OF HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW AT THIS TIME. A WEAK UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL REMAIN NEARLY STATIONARY OVER THE TENNESSEE VALLEY REGION THROUGH TONIGHT. THIS FEATURE WILL HELP TRIGGER SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS EXTREME NORTHERN ALABAMA THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING...PRIMARILY IN AREAS NORTH OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER. ISOLATED HEAVY RAINFALL MAY BE POSSIBLE FROM THESE SLOW-MOVING STORMS...AS WELL AS FREQUENT CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING. THE RAIN SHOULD TAPER OFF AFTER SUNSET. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...(TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY)... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. AFTERNOON AND EVENING SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS CAN BE EXPECTED THROUGH LATE WEEK AS THE SUMMER-LIKE PATTERN CONTINUES. HIGH PRESSURE BUILDING IN ON FRIDAY MAY LIMIT RAINFALL CHANCES THROUGH THE WEEKEND. .SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT... ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME. JTB
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
lightning struck a truck and destroyed truck tire and exploded asphalt with a six foot by one foot trench in the asphalt produced. one 14 year old male was slightly injured by debris from the flying asphalt.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alabama in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Alabama, July 2003
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: 5373432.