Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1989

F2 tornado, Lamar County, Alabama, February 20, 1989

This F2 tornado ran 9.0 miles across Lamar County on February 20, 1989, touching down at 9:30 PM CST and reaching 440 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
February 20, 1989
Touchdown
9:30 PM CST (03:30 UTC)
Path length
9.0 miles (14.5 km)
Path width
440 yards (402 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Lamar County
Touchdown point
33.950, -88.130
Lift-off point
34.050, -88.050
Record number
21

The warnings

13 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:17 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:17 UTC04:15 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 06:18 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), 00:00Z

3.5 hours before the tornado, 148 km from the path. February 21, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 00:00Z on 1989-02-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 164 joules per kilogram, CIN -59, lifted condensation level 805 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 1989-02-21The 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 288 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
164 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-59 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1058 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
805 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
288 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
415 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Centreville/Bibb, AL (KCKL), 12:00Z

8.5 hours after it, 148 km from the path. February 21, 1989.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 12:00Z on 1989-02-21Temperature 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 -10580, lifted condensation level 580 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 1989-02-21The 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 -145 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 76 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10580 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
580 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
76 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-145 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-50 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

The surface observations

Columbus Afb (CBM), 51 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
02:00 UTC6760160° 11 kt1003.7-TSRA FG
03:00 UTC6961160° 16 kt241003.7TS
03:17 UTC270° 16 kt351006.4TSRA
03:22 UTC260° 12 kt171007.1TSRA
04:00 UTC5857160° 3 kt1005.4TSRA FG
05:00 UTC5858110° 5 kt1005.4TSRA FG

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1989 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 20, 1989

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 2012:33 PM CSTF1Rapides Parish, LA1.533$50,000 to $500,000
February 2012:50 PM CSTF1Rapides Parish, LA7.043$50,000 to $500,000
February 202:10 PM CSTF1Catahoula Parish, LA3.040$5,000 to $50,000
February 208:15 PM CSTF1Hinds, MS7.0100$50,000 to $500,000
February 208:18 PM CSTF1Hinds, MS9.5120$50,000 to $500,000
February 2010:00 PM CSTF2Marion, AL10.0440$50,000 to $500,000
February 2010:00 PM CSTF2Monroe, MS2.5100$50,000 to $500,000
February 2011:00 PM CSTF2Winston, AL5.0200$500,000 to $5 million
February 2011:02 PM CSTF1Jasper, MS8.080$50,000 to $500,000
February 2011:25 PM CSTF1Jasper, MS5.060$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.