Lightning, Mobile
- When
- March 13, 2:45 PM CST
- Where
- Mobile County, (Bfm)mobile Brookley
- Injuries
- 5 direct, 0 indirect
- Coordinates
- 30.685, -88.197 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Lightning Strike in Alabama, March 13, 1997
Five people were injured on Brookley Field at Mobile's downtown airport by lightning. An aircraft was attempting to take off between thunderstorms.
Where it happened
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.
- 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
- 0
- Injuries
- 5
- 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 happened
The episode as NWS MOB wrote it up.
Five people were injured on Brookley Field at Mobile's downtown airport by lightning. An aircraft was attempting to take off between thunderstorms. The ground crew was getting the aircraft ready, when lightning struck the plane and the charge went through the nose gear and injured five ground crew members. All were taken to the hospital and examined. One was kept for two days. A static shock was heard in a headset about thirty seconds prior to the strike. The strike was likely the first strike from this thunderstorm.
The radar
The Mobile radar (KMOB), 4 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:43 UTC.
Event by event
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Lightning
- A lightning strike that killed, injured or caused damage.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Ice Storm in Michigan, March 13 to 14, 1997
- Tornado in Georgia, March 13, 1997
- Ice Storm in Ohio, March 13 to 14, 1997
- Storm Surge in Ohio, March 13 to 14, 1997
- Ice Storm in Minnesota, March 13, 1997
- Storm Surge in Ohio, March 13 to 14, 1997
- Storm Surge in Ohio, March 13 to 14, 1997
- Winter Storm in Minnesota, March 13 to 14, 1997
- Heavy Snow in Wisconsin, March 13 to 14, 1997
- Damaging Wind in Florida, March 13, 1997
- Winter Storm in Michigan, March 13 to 16, 1997
- Winter Storm in Wisconsin, March 13 to 14, 1997
More
Every storm in Alabama in 1997Every state in 1997This day in weather historyWarnings in Alabama, March 1997
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: 5589539.