Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1988

F0 tornado, Walker County, Alabama, November 26, 1988

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Walker County on November 26, 1988, touching down at 5:55 PM CST and reaching 13 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
November 26, 1988
Touchdown
5:55 PM CST (23:55 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
13 yards (12 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Walker County
Touchdown point
33.980, -87.280
Record number
675

The warnings

45 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:10 UTC, 45 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:10 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningBMX
00:11 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningBMX

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:44 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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

11.9 hours before the tornado, 120 km from the path. November 26, 1988.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 12:00Z on 1988-11-26Temperature 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 -6552, lifted condensation level 699 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, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 12:00Z on 1988-11-26The 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 299 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
-6552 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
699 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
299 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
388 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.1 hours after it, 120 km from the path. November 27, 1988.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 00:00Z on 1988-11-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 395 joules per kilogram, CIN -11, lifted condensation level 789 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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 1988-11-27The 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 437 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 71 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
395 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11 J/kg
Surface CAPE
221 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
789 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
71 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
437 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
526 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
5.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1988 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 26, 1988

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 265:50 AM CSTF1Panola, TX0.210
November 269:20 AM CSTF1Bolivar, MS0.223$500 to $5,000
November 269:28 AM CSTF2Sunflower, MS2.040$500,000 to $5 million
November 2611:15 AM CSTF1Lafayette, MS0.233$5,000 to $50,000
November 2611:39 AM CSTF1Madison Parish, LA0.2102$5,000 to $50,000
November 2612:00 PM CSTF2Warren, MS9.0600$500,000 to $5 million
November 2612:20 PM CSTF1Yazoo, MS5.070
November 261:40 PM CSTF1Attala, MS2.563

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.