Name: Tornadoes in Alabama, November 24, 2001
Start: 2001-11-24T11:21
End: 2001-11-24T11:24
Location: Alabama

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

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 13
Property damage: $885,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

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 BMX wrote it up.

The Haleyville tornado first struck about 3 tenths of a mile inside Marion County just south of CR196 at 11:21 am. The tornado traveled on a northeast path moving directly through the center of downtown Haleyville severely damaging buildings including a shopping mall. The tornado continued traveling northeast through a residential and partially wooded area before ending about 7 tenths of a mile northeast of downtown Haleyville at 11:24 am.The tornado was rated an F2 on the fujita scale for tornado classification making it a strong tornado. Wind speeds associated with an F2 fall in the range of 113 to 157 mph, however, winds speeds probably remained on the low side of the range perhaps 115 to 130 mph. The tornado path was 1.9 miles long and approximately 70 yards wide. Winston County EMA reported 13 injuries with the tornado including one that was listed as serious.Beginning: 34 13.037/87 38.354 Ending: 34 13.939/87 36.667

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Birmingham, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Nov 24, 3:17 AM CST, 8 hours 4 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Nov 24, 3:17 AM CST, 8 hours 4 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM, AL
317 AM CST SAT NOV 24 2001

ACTIVE WEATHER DAY IN STORE...AND USERS SENSITIVE TO SEVERE WEATHER
SHOULD CHECK STAFFING NEEDS.  SEVERE STORMS NOW ACROSS THE MS
RIVER...AND WILL GET INTO ALABAMA LATER THIS MORNING AND THIS
AFTERNOON.  SPC CURRENTLY HAS US IN SLIGHT RISK AREA...WITH CAVEAT
THAT IF INSTABILITY INCREASES DUE TO GREATER THAN EXPECTED SOLAR
HEATING...THEN RISK MAY BE UPGRADED.  AT ANY RATE...WILL CONTINUE
WITH ENHANCED SEVERE WEATHER WORDING IN ZONES...AND MOST LIKELY BE
MORE SPECIFIC WITH DAMAING WIND/TORNADO WORDING.

STORMS EXPECTED TO TAPER OFF FROM THE EAST TONIGHT...ALTHOUGH FRONT
SEEMS TO STALL AND SOME MODELS KEEP MOISTURE AXIS ALONG EASTERN AND
SOUTHERN ZONES THROUGH SUNDAY.

HARD TO LOCK ON EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS DAYS 3-7...BUT IT IS APPARENT
WE HAVE GONE FROM A TOTALLY TRANQUIL TO A VERY ACTIVE WEATHER
PATTERN ALMOST OVERNIGHT.

HSV 071/052/066/045 +811
BHM 072/055/069/048 +911
MGM 076/058/072/050 8832

.BHM...NONE.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Nov 24, 7:00 AM CST, 4 hours 21 minutes before

ALZ001>050-241700-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
700 AM CST SAT NOV 24 2001

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK FOR NORTH AND CENTRAL ALABAMA.

A STRONG STORM SYSTEM LOCATED FROM LINCOLN NEBRASKA...TO LITTLE ROCK
ARKANSAS...TO EASTERN TEXAS...WILL PROGRESS EASTWARD TODAY.  OUT
AHEAD OF THIS STORM SYSTEM...A STRONG SQUALL LINE HAS DEVELOPED OVER
THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.  THE SQUALL LINE WILL MOVE INTO
NORTHWESTERN ALABAMA BY 8 AM...AND REACH INTERSTATE 65 AROUND NOON.
THE SYSTEM WILL THEN MOVE EAST OF INTERSTATE 65 THROUGH THE AFTERNOON
AND EVENING HOURS.

THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS PLACED ALL OF NORTH AND CENTRAL
ALABAMA IN A SLIGHT RISK CATEGORY FOR TODAY.  THIS RISK MAY NEED
TO BE UPDATED AS THE DAY PROGRESSES.  FIVE COUNTIES ACROSS WESTERN
ALABAMA...FROM LAUDERDALE COUNTY SOUTHWARD TO LAMAR COUNTY...ARE
UNDER A TORNADO WATCH VALID UNTIL 11 AM.  AS THE SQUALL MOVES CLOSER
TO WESTERN ALABAMA THE WATCH AREA WILL MOST LIKELY BE EXTENDED.

THE MAIN SEVERE WEATHER THREAT TODAY WILL BE DAMAGING WINDS IN
EXCESS OF 40 MILES PER HOUR...LARGE HAIL...AND ISOLATED TORNADOS.
ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL
WILL LIKELY BE REQUIRED TODAY AND TONIGHT.  STAY TUNED FOR LATER
STATEMENTS ON THIS DEVELOPING WEATHER SYSTEM.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

2 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Marion

When: November 24, 11:21 AM CST to 11:22 AM CST
Where: Marion County, 8 mi NE of Whitehouse
Rating: F2
Path length: 0.3 mi
Path width: 70 yd
Property damage: $85,000
Reported by: NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates: 34.217, -87.633

Tornado, Winston

When: November 24, 11:22 AM CST to 11:24 AM CST
Where: Winston County, 1 mi SW of Haleyville
Rating: F2
Path length: 1.6 mi
Path width: 70 yd
Injuries: 13 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $800,000
Reported by: NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates: 34.217, -87.633

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

More

Every storm in Alabama in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Alabama, 2001 Warnings in Alabama, November 2001

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: 5272275, 5272276.