Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1980

F0 tornado, Mobile County, Alabama, May 15, 1980

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Mobile County on May 15, 1980, touching down at 8:50 PM CDT and reaching 10 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.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
May 15, 1980
Touchdown
8:50 PM CDT (01:50 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Mobile County
Touchdown point
30.400, -88.230
Record number
243

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.

Boothville, LA (KBVE), 00:00Z

1.8 hours before the tornado, 164 km from the path. May 16, 1980.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Boothville, LA at 00:00Z on 1980-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1988 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 540 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, Boothville, LA at 00:00Z on 1980-05-16The 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 51 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
1988 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2688 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
540 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
98 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Boothville, LA (KBVE), 12:00Z

10.2 hours after it, 164 km from the path. May 16, 1980.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Boothville, LA at 12:00Z on 1980-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 704 joules per kilogram, CIN -118, lifted condensation level 756 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, Boothville, LA at 12:00Z on 1980-05-16The 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 73 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
704 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-118 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1875 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
756 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
142 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
3.9
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1980 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 15, 1980

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 157:30 AM CDTF1La Salle, TX0.530$50,000 to $500,000
May 1511:45 AM CDTF1Atascosa, TX6.250$50,000 to $500,000
May 152:30 PM CDTF1Jasper, TX0.227$5,000 to $50,000
May 153:10 PM CDTF1Montgomery, TX3.630$5,000 to $50,000
May 153:57 PM CDTF1Hancock, MS0.530$500 to $5,000
May 156:00 PM CDTF1Franklin Parish, LA0.51012$50,000 to $500,000
May 156:15 PM CDTF1Kinney, TX99.840
May 1510:50 PM CDTF1La Salle, TX0.533
May 1511:35 PM CDTF1Live Oak, TX14.650
May 1512:45 AM CDTF1Winn Parish, LA0.510$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.