Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1982

F1 tornado, Limestone, Lauderdale and Madison counties, Alabama, April 17, 1982

This F1 tornado ran 28.0 miles across Limestone, Lauderdale and Madison counties on April 17, 1982, touching down at 3:35 AM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
April 17, 1982
Touchdown
3:35 AM CST (09:35 UTC)
Path length
28.0 miles (45.1 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Limestone, Lauderdale and Madison counties
Touchdown point
34.950, -87.220
Lift-off point
34.920, -86.750
Record number
178

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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

9.6 hours before the tornado, 137 km from the path. April 17, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1982-04-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 662 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 747 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1982-04-17The 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 316 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 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
662 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
36 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
747 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
316 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
530 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

2.4 hours after it, 137 km from the path. April 17, 1982.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1982-04-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -7243, lifted condensation level 1104 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1982-04-17The 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 124 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7243 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1104 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
183 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Huntsville/Madison (HSV), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
08:00 UTC7063180° 15 kt1014.9
09:00 UTC6865170° 9 kt1014.6TSRA
09:22 UTC180° 11 kt1014.9
10:00 UTC6965190° 12 kt1014.6
10:18 UTC300° 11 kt1017.6TSRA FG
10:36 UTC310° 13 kt1016.6TSRA FG
11:00 UTC6461310° 14 kt1018.6TSRA FG

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1982 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 17, 1982

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 171:45 AM CSTF2Marshall, MS0.110$50,000 to $500,000
April 173:45 AM CSTF1Marshall, TN0.830$5,000 to $50,000
April 174:00 AM CSTF1Lawrence, AL0.240under $50
April 174:50 PM ESTF2Columbia, PA4.0301$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.