Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1976

F2 tornado, Calhoun County, Alabama, March 29, 1976

This F2 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Calhoun County on March 29, 1976, touching down at 8:10 PM CST and reaching 40 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
March 29, 1976
Touchdown
8:10 PM CST (02:10 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Calhoun County
Touchdown point
33.620, -85.970
Record number
207

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.

Centreville/Bibb, AL (KCKL), 00:00Z

2.2 hours before the tornado, 140 km from the path. March 30, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 00:00Z on 1976-03-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 627 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 1129 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 00:00Z on 1976-03-30The 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 211 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 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
627 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1308 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1129 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
211 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
216 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.8
Supercell composite
5.9
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Centreville/Bibb, AL (KCKL), 12:00Z

9.8 hours after it, 140 km from the path. March 30, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 12:00Z on 1976-03-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 126 joules per kilogram, CIN -468, lifted condensation level 769 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, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 12:00Z on 1976-03-30The 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 27 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
126 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-468 J/kg
Surface CAPE
333 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
769 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-41 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
2.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1976 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 29, 1976

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 296:10 AM CSTF2McIntosh, OK0.330$500 to $5,000
March 291:30 PM CSTF0Cloud, KS2.017
March 292:00 PM CSTF1Hot Spring, AR7.950$5,000 to $50,000
March 292:03 PM CSTF4Madison, MS22.38803177$5 million to $50 million
March 292:05 PM CSTF4Copiah, MS126.58808$500,000 to $5 million
March 293:07 PM CSTF3Pulaski, AR17.2100564$500 to $5,000
March 293:25 PM CSTF3Cleburne, AR16.55016$50,000 to $500,000
March 294:49 PM CSTF1Lawrence, AR1.0100$500 to $5,000
March 295:00 PM CSTF2Lawrence, AR20.1200$5,000 to $50,000
March 295:00 PM CSTF0St. Clair, AL0.110$500 to $5,000
March 296:40 PM CSTF1Tipton, TN0.2200$5,000 to $50,000
March 297:53 PM CSTF1Crockett, TN0.7200
March 2911:28 PM CSTF2Lincoln, MS0.250$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.