Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1968

F3 tornado, Chilton and Coosa counties, Alabama, November 17, 1968

This F3 tornado ran 32.3 miles across Chilton and Coosa counties on November 17, 1968, touching down at 12:45 PM GMT-6 and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 24, and did $500,000 to $5 million 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
November 17, 1968
Touchdown
12:45 PM GMT-6 (18:45 UTC)
Path length
32.3 miles (52.0 km)
Path width
400 yards (366 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
24
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
Counties
Chilton and Coosa counties
Touchdown point
32.900, -86.750
Lift-off point
32.870, -86.220
Record number
614

What the Weather Service recorded

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
Direct

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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

6.8 hours before the tornado, 66 km from the path. November 17, 1968.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Montgomery/Danne, AL at 12:00Z on 1968-11-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 163 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 523 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 1968-11-17The 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 155 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 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
163 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
44 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
523 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
155 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
242 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

5.2 hours after it, 66 km from the path. November 18, 1968.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Montgomery/Danne, AL at 00:00Z on 1968-11-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 548 joules per kilogram, CIN -58, lifted condensation level 831 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 00:00Z on 1968-11-18The 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 252 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 71 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
548 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-58 J/kg
Surface CAPE
203 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
831 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
71 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
252 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
258 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
4.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Maxwell Afb/Montgom (MXF), 57 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:00 UTC6967180° 12 kt-RA FG
18:00 UTC7269200° 6 kt1010.2RA
19:00 UTC7470200° 12 kt
20:00 UTC7768200° 8 kt

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1968 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 17, 1968

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 175:05 AM GMT-6F1Rapides Parish, LA0.533$50 to $500
November 177:45 AM GMT-6F2Lawrence, MS10.810
November 179:30 AM GMT-6F1Smith, MS0.110$500 to $5,000
November 1711:30 AM GMT-6F2Choctaw, AL11.5102$5,000 to $50,000
November 175:16 PM GMT-5F1Madison, GA2.650$5,000 to $50,000
November 176:30 PM GMT-5F1Clarke, GA2.033$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.