F2 tornado, Shelby County, Alabama, March 27, 1994

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.

Rating

F2

Date

March 27, 1994

Touchdown

5:31 PM CST (23:31 UTC)

Path length

12.0 miles (19.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

53

Property damage

$500,000 to $5 million

County

Shelby County

Touchdown point

33.300, -86.850

Lift-off point

33.380, -86.630

Record number

70

A tornado began on the north side of Helena on the Bearden Farm moving northeastward crossing Alabama 261 near Pelham High School. The school suffered some damage. Continuing northeast, the tornado caused damage in a residential section before doing extensive damage to two mobile home parks on the west side of U.S. Highway 31 on the north side of Pelham. The tornado did extensive to businesses in the stretch from the U.S. 31/Alabama 119 intersection to the Alabama 119/Interstate 65 intersection. The tornado continued on its track going through primarily residential areas of Pelham and Indian Springs. The tornado dissipated just before reaching the Meadow Brook area about two miles west of U.S. Highway 280. Areas in the path of the tornado included sections of Chandalar, Green Park South mobile home park, South Gate Mobile Home Park, Indian Springs Village, Broken Bow, Broken Bow South, and Riverchase.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:18 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate 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 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1994 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.