Dense Fog in Alabama, November 3, 2000

Name: Dense Fog in Alabama, November 3, 2000
Start: 2000-11-03T05:30
End: 2000-11-03T06:00
Location: Alabama

November 3, 2000 · NWS MOB · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 dense fog, as filed by the National Weather Service.

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 8
Property damage: $400,000
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.

Event by event

1 dense fog. Local standard time, as filed.

Dense Fog, Lower Baldwin

When: November 3, 5:30 AM CST to 6:00 AM CST
Where: Lower Baldwin forecast zone
Injuries: 8 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $400,000
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

Patchy dense fog and smoke from a nearby brush fire combined to contribute to a series of traffic pileups involving between 30 and 35 vehicles on Interstate 10. The brush fire, which was started by a lightning strike back at the end of August 2000, had been smoldering for over two months in a nearby, but remote swamp. Around 530 AM (11/03/00), visibilities along Interstate 10 near the Wilcox Road Exit were sharply reduced by smoke and fog. Automobiles traveling westbound along I-10 abrubtly encountered the very low visibilities and suddenly put on their brakes. Fast moving traffic from behind slammed into the slower moving vehicles, and this resulted in several massive traffic pileups, involving 30 to 35 vehicles. Over 10 different accidents were reported along the stretch of I-10 between the Wilcox Road Exit and the Loxley Exit. Eight people were injured in the wrecks, but fortunately, no one was killed. The wrecks shut down a nine-mile stretch of the westbound lane of interstate 10 for several hours, and created traffic headaches all day long as the wreckage was removed.

What these are

Dense Fog: Fog reducing visibility to a quarter mile or less, filed where it caused accidents or disruption.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Alabama in 2000 Every state in 2000 This day in weather history Warnings in Alabama, November 2000

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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5160832.