Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1973

F2 tornado, Winston County, Alabama, November 26, 1973

This F2 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Winston County on November 26, 1973, touching down at 4:20 PM CST and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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
November 26, 1973
Touchdown
4:20 PM CST (22:20 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Winston County
Touchdown point
34.050, -87.120
Record number
1032

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

10.3 hours before the tornado, 206 km from the path. November 26, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Montgomery/Danne, AL at 12:00Z on 1973-11-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 575 joules per kilogram, CIN -11, lifted condensation level 695 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 1973-11-26The 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 165 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
575 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11 J/kg
Surface CAPE
426 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
695 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
165 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
202 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
3.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.7 hours after it, 206 km from the path. November 27, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Montgomery/Danne, AL at 00:00Z on 1973-11-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 875 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 867 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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 1973-11-27The 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 216 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
875 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
545 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
867 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
216 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
273 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
7.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 November 26, 1973

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 266:15 AM CSTF1Calloway, KY0.6102$50,000 to $500,000
November 267:05 AM CSTF2Weakley, TN0.527$5,000 to $50,000
November 261:30 PM CSTF3Webster, MS54.4105$500,000 to $5 million
November 264:38 PM CSTF1Lamar, AL0.110
November 265:45 PM CSTF1Overton, TN2.010$5,000 to $50,000
November 266:00 PM CSTF3Copiah, MS0.110
November 266:15 PM CSTF2Marion, AL5.4105$50,000 to $500,000
November 266:50 PM CSTF2Noxubee, MS0.110$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.