Tornado, Mobile
- When
- January 26, 5:27 PM CST to 5:34 PM CST
- Where
- Mobile County, Gulf Crest
- Rating
- F1
- Path length
- 2 mi
- Path width
- 500 yd
- Deaths
- 1 direct, 0 indirect
- Injuries
- 3 direct, 0 indirect
- Property damage
- $100,000
- Coordinates
- 31.000, -88.230
Tornado in Alabama, January 26, 1996
A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ALONG US HWY 45 NEAR GULF CREST AND THEN MOVED NORTHEAST FOR ABOUT 2 MILES. THREE PEOPLE WERE INJURED AND ONE OF THESE DIED IN A LOCAL HOSPITAL ABOUT A WEEK LATER.
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
The toll
- Deaths
- 1
- Injuries
- 3
- Property damage
- $100,000
- 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 happened
The episode as NWS MOB wrote it up.
A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ALONG US HWY 45 NEAR GULF CREST AND THEN MOVED NORTHEAST FOR ABOUT 2 MILES. THREE PEOPLE WERE INJURED AND ONE OF THESE DIED IN A LOCAL HOSPITAL ABOUT A WEEK LATER. TWO ELDERLY WOMEN WERE IN A TRAILER THAT WAS TURNED OVER BY THE TORNADO. ANOTHER OF THE INJURED WAS IN A MOTOR HOME NEXT TO THE TRAILER. THE TRAILER WAS LOCATED ON A HILL AND THIS WAS WHERE THE TORNADO FIRST TOUCHED DOWN. OTHER HOMES AWAY FROM THE TRAILER SUFFERED ROOF DAMAGE AS THE TORNADO MOVED NORTHEAST. TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN AND TWISTED ALONG THE PATH OF THE TORNADO.
The radar
The Mobile radar (KMOB), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:27 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
The people who died
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tornado, Mobile | 1996-02-02 | 85 | Female | Mobile/Trailer Home | Direct |
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Heavy Snow in Iowa, January 26, 1996
- Blizzard in Wisconsin, January 26 to 27, 1996
- Cold in North Dakota, January 26, 1996
- Blizzard in Iowa, January 26 to 27, 1996
- Hail in Mississippi, January 26, 1996
- Tornado in Louisiana, January 26, 1996
- Flash Flood in Alabama, January 26, 1996
- Damaging Wind in Mississippi, January 26, 1996
- Flooding in North Carolina, January 26 to 27, 1996
- Winter Storm in Nebraska, January 26, 1996
- Damaging Wind in Mississippi, January 26, 1996
- Flash Flood in Texas, January 26, 1996
More
Every storm in Alabama in 1996Every state in 1996This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Alabama, 1996Warnings in Alabama, January 1996
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: 5537373.