This day saw an late winter tornado outbreak in Alabama. Nearly the entire state experienced thunderstorms, many of them severe. Several tornadoes occurred when isolated storms developed in front of an advancing squall line. Outflow from the squall line acted to enhance rotation in the isolated storms. This is another of the many cases from around the country which NSSL is using to test its Mesocyclone Detection Algorithm (MDA).
Presented here are various WSR-88D radar images from the Birmingham, AL radar (KBMX). Included in some of the images is output from NSSL's Mesocyclone Detection Algorithm (MDA). A yellow circle depicts a mesocyclone. A red-in-yellow circle indicates the mesocyclone extends to the lowest elevation scan of the radar (extists near or ar the base of the storm) where it is a more likely tornado threat.
This storm remained a long track cyclic supercell, and, later in its life, it was caught from behind by the advancing squall line (Fourth Image-the cyclic supercell is identified by the number 625). Outflow from the squall line (Fifth Image) enhanced the latest in a series of tornadoes, and may have contributed to it's producing F3 damage near Jackson's Gap in Tallapoosa County. Jackson's Gap had also experienced a small F1 tornado less than two hours earlier.
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