Hail in Birmingham on Wednesday, August 9, 2023
The Storm Prediction Center logged 5 hail reports in Birmingham on Wednesday, August 9, 2023, between 5:17 pm and 9:00 pm CDT, in 2 of the metro's 5 counties. The largest was 2.00 inches at 1 WNW Smoke Rise (Blount County) at 5:23 pm. NOAA radar flagged 323 hail signatures inside the metro that day: 164 rated a 100% chance of hail and 142 with a maximum expected size of 1 inch or more.
Where hail was reported
Reports came from 4 places in Blount and Shelby counties, named as the National Weather Service described them.
- Hayden 2 reports, up to 1.75 in
- Chelsea 1 report, up to 1.00 in
- Rickwood Caverns 1 report, up to 1.25 in
- Smoke Rise 1 report, up to 2.00 in
Every hail report logged that day
Times are Central Daylight Time. Sizes are in inches, as reported. The comment is the National Weather Service's text as published in the Storm Prediction Center's daily log.
| Time | Size | Place | County | NWS comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5:17 pm | 1.25 | Rickwood Caverns | Blount | (BMX) |
| 5:23 pm | 2.00 | 1 WNW Smoke Rise | Blount | Pics from Smoke Rise. (BMX) |
| 5:29 pm | 1.00 | 1 E Hayden | Blount | (BMX) |
| 5:33 pm | 1.75 | 1 WNW Hayden | Blount | (BMX) |
| 9:00 pm | 1.00 | Chelsea | Shelby | Quarter sized hail reported in Chelsea. (BMX) |
What NEXRAD radar recorded inside the metro
323 signatures from 6 radars fell inside the metro's counties on this local date, counting every cell the algorithm rated from a 10% to a 100% chance of hail; 164 were rated 100% and 35 had a maximum expected size of 2 inches or more.
| Radar | Signatures | Rated 100% | 1 in or more | 2 in or more | Largest expected | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KMXX | 84 | 42 | 32 | 7 | 2.50 in | 7:01 pm | 9:37 pm |
| KGWX | 77 | 39 | 37 | 10 | 2.25 in | 7:06 pm | 9:39 pm |
| KHTX | 64 | 33 | 28 | 5 | 2.75 in | 7:00 pm | 9:33 pm |
| KBMX | 47 | 23 | 24 | 6 | 2.75 in | 7:05 pm | 8:55 pm |
| KFFC | 44 | 23 | 18 | 6 | 2.50 in | 7:03 pm | 9:22 pm |
| KEOX | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2.25 in | 7:26 pm | 9:23 pm |
Each radar that scans a storm writes its own signature about every 4 to 6 minutes, so one storm produces many rows and overlapping radars count it more than once. The raw rows for this day are in NOAA's Severe Weather Data Inventory.
Check an address for August 9, 2023
See, free, how many hail signatures NOAA recorded within 1, 3 and 5 miles of one address that day and the nearest spotter report. The full report is $19.
Spotter reports come from the Storm Prediction Center's preliminary daily logs, grouped here by local calendar date (Central Daylight Time) and by county: a report counts for Birmingham when its coordinates fall inside one of the metro's 5 counties (Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Blount and Walker counties). Radar signatures are estimates from the Hail Detection Algorithm, not measured stones; they include every cell it rated, from a 10% to a 100% probability of hail. How these pages are built.