Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1964

F3 tornado, Cleburne and Haralson counties, Alabama and Georgia, April 28, 1964

This F3 tornado ran 15.7 miles across Cleburne and Haralson counties on April 28, 1964, touching down at 6:00 PM GMT-5 and reaching 33 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 10, 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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
April 28, 1964
Touchdown
6:00 PM GMT-5 (23:00 UTC)
Path length
15.7 miles (25.3 km)
Path width
33 yards (30 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
10
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
Counties
Cleburne and Haralson counties
Touchdown point
33.730, -85.420
Lift-off point
33.730, -85.150
Record number
204

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.

Athens Municipal, GA (KAHN), 12:00Z

11.0 hours before the tornado, 185 km from the path. April 28, 1964.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 12:00Z on 1964-04-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 127 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 588 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, Athens Municipal, GA at 12:00Z on 1964-04-28The 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 116 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
127 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
216 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
588 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
116 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
173 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Athens Municipal, GA (KAHN), 00:00Z

1.0 hours after it, 185 km from the path. April 29, 1964.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Athens Municipal, GA at 00:00Z on 1964-04-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 929 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 806 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, Athens Municipal, GA at 00:00Z on 1964-04-29The 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 52 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
929 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1244 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
806 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
1.9
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1964 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 28, 1964

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 281:40 PM GMT-4F2Orange, FL0.110$50,000 to $500,000
April 282:15 PM GMT-5F2Elkhart, IN4.51002$50 to $500
April 282:20 PM GMT-5F2Madison, IN0.150
April 283:15 PM GMT-5F1Newaygo, MI0.110$5,000 to $50,000
April 284:10 PM GMT-5F1St. Clair, AL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
April 284:45 PM GMT-5F3Talladega, AL0.1101$5,000 to $50,000
April 284:45 PM GMT-5F2Calhoun, AL4.310$5,000 to $50,000
April 287:30 PM GMT-4F0Spartanburg, SC0.110under $50
April 286:40 PM GMT-5F1Tallapoosa, AL13.010$5,000 to $50,000
April 288:30 PM GMT-4F0Spartanburg, SC0.110under $50
April 287:30 PM GMT-5F2Lowndes, AL6.810$50,000 to $500,000

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.