Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1985

F3 tornado, Marshall County, Alabama, April 5, 1985

This F3 tornado ran 8.0 miles across Marshall County on April 5, 1985, touching down at 4:45 PM CST and reaching 277 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 5, and did $500,000 to $5 million 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 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F3
Date
April 5, 1985
Touchdown
4:45 PM CST (22:45 UTC)
Path length
8.0 miles (12.9 km)
Path width
277 yards (253 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
5
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Marshall County
Touchdown point
34.200, -86.320
Lift-off point
34.280, -86.200
Record number
59

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), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 173 km from the path. April 5, 1985.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 12:00Z on 1985-04-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 101 joules per kilogram, CIN -287, lifted condensation level 534 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 1985-04-05The 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 264 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
101 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-287 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
534 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
264 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
399 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.2 hours after it, 173 km from the path. April 6, 1985.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 00:00Z on 1985-04-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -23, lifted condensation level 549 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 00:00Z on 1985-04-06The 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 109 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-23 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
549 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
109 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
20 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1985 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 5, 1985

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 54:55 AM CSTF1Randolph, IL0.5100$500,000 to $5 million
April 54:58 AM CSTF2Randolph, IL1.85013$50,000 to $500,000
April 511:05 AM CSTF1Union Parish, LA2.0100
April 512:00 PM CSTF1Ouachita Parish, LA3.0150
April 53:49 PM ESTF2Harrison, IN1.017$5,000 to $50,000
April 54:22 PM ESTF2Scott, IN2.017$500 to $5,000
April 54:25 PM ESTF2Jefferson, IN1.017$5,000 to $50,000
April 54:28 PM ESTF2Washington, IN1.010$500,000 to $5 million
April 54:15 PM CSTF1Coffee, TN1.030$500 to $5,000
April 54:34 PM CSTF3Cullman, AL3.0100$50,000 to $500,000
April 55:10 PM CSTF3Etowah, AL8.05001$500,000 to $5 million
April 55:15 PM CSTF1Blount, AL1.0100$50,000 to $500,000
April 55:20 PM CSTF1Talladega, AL3.0100$5,000 to $50,000
April 55:45 PM CSTF2Calhoun, AL3.02005$50,000 to $500,000
April 57:35 PM ESTF2Pickens, GA5.0100$500,000 to $5 million
April 57:50 PM ESTF1Douglas, GA2.03316$500,000 to $5 million
April 58:05 PM ESTF2Cherokee, GA3.0100$500,000 to $5 million
April 58:10 PM ESTF1Fulton, GA1.077$500,000 to $5 million
April 58:15 PM ESTF1Fannin, GA1.0100$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.