Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1993

F1 tornado, Walker County, Alabama, May 3, 1993

This F1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Walker County on May 3, 1993, touching down at 5:35 PM CDT and reaching 20 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 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
May 3, 1993
Touchdown
5:35 PM CDT (22:35 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Walker County
Touchdown point
33.730, -87.280
Record number
191

What the Weather Service recorded

At 1635CST a tornado moved northeast through the town of Parrish destroying three houses, and causing major damage to nineteen more homes. Two mobile homes were destroyed. There were numerous trees blown down. Also at about the same time in the Townley vicinity numerous trees were uprooted by a tornado that also moved northeast a short distance. There were no injuries.

At 1635CST a tornado moved northeast through the town of Parrish destroying three houses, and causing major damage to nineteen more homes. Two mobile homes were destroyed. There were numerous trees blown down. Also at about the same time in the Townley vicinity numerous trees were uprooted by a tornado that also moved northeast a short distance. There were no injuries.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:40 UTC00:15 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 06:28 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

10.6 hours before the tornado, 93 km from the path. May 3, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 12:00Z on 1993-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 62 joules per kilogram, CIN -37, lifted condensation level 566 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 1993-05-03The 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 204 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
62 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-37 J/kg
Surface CAPE
57 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
566 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
204 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
264 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.4 hours after it, 93 km from the path. May 4, 1993.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 00:00Z on 1993-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1622 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 664 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, Centreville/Bibb, AL at 00:00Z on 1993-05-04The 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 243 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1622 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2118 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
664 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
243 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
302 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.1
Supercell composite
10.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1993 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 3, 1993

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 31:58 PM CDTF1Pemiscot, MO1.550$5,000 to $50,000
May 32:37 PM CDTF0Franklin, AL0.510
May 33:20 PM CDTF0Lauderdale, AL0.210
May 35:35 PM CDTF0Walker, AL0.510
May 36:35 PM CDTF0Madison, AL0.320
May 37:45 PM EDTF0Troup, GA0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 36:23 PM MDTF0Jerome, ID0.110$50 to $500
May 37:30 PM CDTF1Cullman, AL1.020
May 37:35 PM CDTF2Tuscaloosa, AL6.0503
May 39:40 PM MDTF1Tooele, UT0.113$50,000 to $500,000

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.