Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1957

F4 tornado, Blount and Marshall counties, Alabama, November 18, 1957

This F4 tornado ran 26.1 miles across Blount and Marshall counties on November 18, 1957, touching down at 5:30 PM GMT-6 and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed 3 people and injured 12, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mphthis tornado

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F4
Date
November 18, 1957
Touchdown
5:30 PM GMT-6 (23:30 UTC)
Path length
26.1 miles (42.0 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
3
Injuries
12
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Blount and Marshall counties
Touchdown point
33.980, -86.520
Lift-off point
34.270, -86.220
Record number
813

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Montgomery/Danne, AL (KMGM), 12:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 203 km from the path. November 18, 1957.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Montgomery/Danne, AL at 12:00Z on 1957-11-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 398 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 683 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Montgomery/Danne, AL at 12:00Z on 1957-11-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 224 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
398 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
562 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
683 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
224 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
307 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Montgomery/Danne, AL (KMGM), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 203 km from the path. November 19, 1957.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Montgomery/Danne, AL at 00:00Z on 1957-11-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -6132, lifted condensation level 782 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Montgomery/Danne, AL at 00:00Z on 1957-11-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 90 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6132 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
782 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
123 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Birmingham Municipal (BHM), 71 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:00 UTC7167180° 20 kt1002TSRA
23:00 UTC7065200° 23 kt1003.4-TSRA
00:00 UTC6763200° 13 kt1004.7-SHRA
01:00 UTC6663200° 14 kt1004.7-SHRA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1957 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 18, 1957

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 184:00 AM GMT-6F1Montgomery, TN0.110$500 to $5,000
November 1810:30 AM GMT-6F0Claiborne, MS0.110$500 to $5,000
November 1811:00 AM GMT-6F1Livingston Parish, LA21.627$5,000 to $50,000
November 1812:10 PM GMT-6F2Tishomingo, MS17.9502$50,000 to $500,000
November 181:30 PM GMT-6F2Jones, MS6.2502$5,000 to $50,000
November 181:30 PM GMT-6F2Franklin, AL7.410$5,000 to $50,000
November 182:30 PM GMT-6F3Clarke, MS9.077$5,000 to $50,000
November 182:30 PM GMT-6F1Greene, AL28.0105$50,000 to $500,000
November 182:45 PM GMT-6F1Tuscaloosa, AL3.3101$5,000 to $50,000
November 182:45 PM GMT-6F1Dallas, AL37.310$5,000 to $50,000
November 183:00 PM GMT-6F2Marion, MS25.3772$50,000 to $500,000
November 183:30 PM GMT-6F2Jefferson, AL8.2100135$500,000 to $5 million
November 184:15 PM GMT-6F1DeKalb, AL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
November 184:25 PM GMT-6F1Metcalfe, KY0.110$50,000 to $500,000
November 184:30 PM GMT-6F2Fentress, TN13.92202$5,000 to $50,000
November 184:35 PM GMT-6F1Tallapoosa, AL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
November 185:45 PM GMT-5F2Chattooga, GA14.5500$50,000 to $500,000
November 185:00 PM GMT-6F1Morgan, AL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
November 185:00 PM GMT-6F1Lawrence, AL0.110$500 to $5,000
November 185:15 PM GMT-6F1Cleburne, AL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
November 185:30 PM GMT-6F2Clay, AL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
November 188:00 PM GMT-5F1Murray, GA1.033$5,000 to $50,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.