Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1961

F2 tornado, Russell County, Alabama, February 24, 1961

This F2 tornado ran 25.6 miles across Russell County on February 24, 1961, touching down at 4:30 PM GMT-6 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 4, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 mph

    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
F2
Date
February 24, 1961
Touchdown
4:30 PM GMT-6 (22:30 UTC)
Path length
25.6 miles (41.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
4
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Russell County
Touchdown point
32.230, -85.400
Lift-off point
32.380, -85.000
Record number
23

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

10.5 hours before the tornado, 113 km from the path. February 24, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Montgomery/Danne, AL at 12:00Z on 1961-02-24Temperature 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 -6988, lifted condensation level 576 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 12:00Z on 1961-02-24The 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 147 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 72 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
-6988 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
576 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
72 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
147 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
192 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.5 hours after it, 113 km from the path. February 25, 1961.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Montgomery/Danne, AL at 00:00Z on 1961-02-25Temperature 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 -4318, lifted condensation level 613 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 1961-02-25The 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 77 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 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
-4318 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
613 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
94 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fort Benning (LSF), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC72680° 0 kt1009.5
22:00 UTC66650° 0 ktTSRA FG
23:00 UTC6765290° 16 ktTSRA
00:00 UTC6462270° 6 kt1009.1SHRA FG

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1961 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 24, 1961

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 242:40 PM GMT-5F2Dooly, GA4.9200$5,000 to $50,000
February 243:30 PM GMT-5F2Bibb, GA3.830$5,000 to $50,000
February 243:30 PM GMT-5F2Twiggs, GA1.050$5,000 to $50,000
February 244:45 PM GMT-5F2Baldwin, GA0.5600$5,000 to $50,000
February 246:30 PM GMT-5F1Aiken, SC0.5605$5,000 to $50,000
February 246:30 PM GMT-5F1Richmond, GA1.0100$5,000 to $50,000
February 247:00 PM GMT-5F1Aiken, SC0.5502$500 to $5,000
February 247:45 PM GMT-5F2Taylor, GA2.030$5,000 to $50,000
February 248:00 PM GMT-5F0Orangeburg, SC0.537under $50

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.