Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1979

F1 tornado, Baldwin County, Alabama, June 30, 1979

Name: F1 tornado, Baldwin County, Alabama, June 30, 1979
Start: 1979-07-01T00:55:00.000Z
Location: Baldwin County, Alabama

This F1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Baldwin County on June 30, 1979, touching down at 7:55 PM CDT and reaching 17 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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.

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 mphthis tornado
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 mph
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: F1
Date: June 30, 1979
Touchdown: 7:55 PM CDT (00:55 UTC)
Path length: 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width: 17 yards (16 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $500 to $5,000
County: Baldwin County
Touchdown point: 30.450, -87.820
Record number: 457

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 1979 tornado in Alabama Every tornado in Alabama since 1950 Warnings in force in Alabama now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 30, 1979

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 30	1:30 AM CDT	F1	Jackson, TN	2.0	100	2	1	$5,000 to $50,000
June 30	10:00 AM CDT	F1	Concordia Parish, LA	9.8	200		1	$5,000 to $50,000
June 30	4:00 PM MDT	F0	Phillips, MT	0.1	10			$50,000 to $500,000
June 30	9:00 PM MDT	F0	Wibaux, MT	0.1	10

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.