Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1973
F3 tornado, Coffee and Dale counties, Alabama, December 29, 1973
This F3 tornado ran 11.6 miles across Coffee and Dale counties on December 29, 1973, touching down at 4:25 PM CST and reaching 67 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 11, 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- December 29, 1973
- Touchdown
- 4:25 PM CST (22:25 UTC)
- Path length
- 11.6 miles (18.7 km)
- Path width
- 67 yards (61 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 11
- Property damage
- $500,000 to $5 million
- Counties
- Coffee and Dale counties
- Touchdown point
- 31.320, -85.900
- Lift-off point
- 31.330, -85.700
- Record number
- 1092
The surface observations
Cairns Aaf/Ozark (OZR), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:00 UTC | 72.86 | 63 | 210° 8 kt | 20 | 1013.2 | |
| 22:00 UTC | 70 | 63 | 200° 6 kt | 1013.2 | ||
| 23:00 UTC | 69 | 65 | 210° 7 kt | 1013.2 | ||
| 00:00 UTC | 67 | 65.84 | 270° 10 kt | 1012.9 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1973 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of December 29, 1973
6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 29 | 2:55 PM CST | F1 | Blount, AL | 0.1 | 30 | $50 to $500 | ||
| December 29 | 4:35 PM CST | F1 | Jefferson, AL | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| December 29 | 5:15 PM CST | F2 | DeKalb, AL | 0.3 | 100 | 1 | $50,000 to $500,000 | |
| December 29 | 6:40 PM CST | F3 | Henry, AL | 15.0 | 70 | 2 | $500,000 to $5 million | |
| December 29 | 8:30 PM EST | F1 | Paulding, GA | 5.7 | 10 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| December 29 | 9:00 PM EST | F1 | Early, GA | 0.1 | 10 | $500 to $5,000 |
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.