Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1994
F4 Piedmont tornado, Alabama, March 27, 1994
This F4 tornado ran 50.0 miles across St. Clair, Calhoun and Cherokee counties on March 27, 1994, touching down at 10:55 AM CST and reaching 880 yards wide. It killed 22 people and injured 150, and did $5 million to $50 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mphthis tornado
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- F4
- Date
- March 27, 1994
- Touchdown
- 10:55 AM CST (16:55 UTC)
- Path length
- 50.0 miles (80.5 km)
- Path width
- 880 yards (805 m)
- Deaths
- 22
- Injuries
- 150
- Property damage
- $5 million to $50 million
- Counties
- St. Clair, Calhoun and Cherokee counties
- Touchdown point
- 33.720, -86.150
- Lift-off point
- 34.020, -85.420
- Record number
- 50
The warnings
2 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:53 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:45 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:24 UTC | 17:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BMX |
| 16:53 UTC | 17:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | BMX |
| 18:30 UTC | 19:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | BMX |
| 22:33 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | BMX |
| 23:35 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | BMX |
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 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 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
4.9 hours before the tornado, 170 km from the path. March 27, 1994.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1055 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -3 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 989 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 564 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 58 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 365 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 399 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.6
- Supercell composite
- 10.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
Centreville/Bibb, AL (KCKL), 00:00Z
7.1 hours after it, 170 km from the path. March 28, 1994.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1080 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -8 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1267 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1126 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 75 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 327 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 424 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.7
- Supercell composite
- 13.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.4 K/km
The surface observations
Gadsden Municipal (Awos) (GAD), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:00 UTC | 74.84 | 63.86 | 200° 10 kt | 20 | 1006.1 | |
| 16:00 UTC | 74.84 | 63.86 | 190° 13 kt | 19 | 1005.1 | |
| 17:00 UTC | 68 | 63 | 210° 8 kt | 23 | 1004.7 | |
| 18:00 UTC | 67 | 63 | 260° 3 kt | 1003.7 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1994 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of March 27, 1994
28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 27 | 1:05 AM CST | F0 | Bexar, TX | 0.5 | 30 | $50 to $500 | ||
| March 27 | 11:02 AM CST | F2 | Marshall, AL | 6.0 | 400 | 30 | $500,000 to $5 million | |
| March 27 | 12:14 PM EST | F4 | Bartow, GA | 49.0 | 1,760 | 3 | 20 | $5 million to $50 million |
| March 27 | 11:32 AM CST | F3 | DeKalb, AL | 23.0 | 700 | 20 | $500,000 to $5 million | |
| March 27 | 12:55 PM EST | F0 | Walker, GA | 1.5 | 50 | 1 | $5,000 to $50,000 | |
| March 27 | 12:55 PM EST | F0 | Walker, GA | 0.7 | 23 | $500 to $5,000 | ||
| March 27 | 11:57 AM CST | F0 | Blount, AL | 2.5 | 150 | 1 | $50,000 to $500,000 | |
| March 27 | 1:15 PM EST | F1 | Walker, GA | 1.0 | 40 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| March 27 | 1:17 PM EST | F3 | Dawson, GA | 44.0 | 2,613 | 3 | 45 | $5 million to $50 million |
| March 27 | 1:30 PM EST | F0 | Floyd, GA | 2.5 | 220 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| March 27 | 2:01 PM EST | F3 | Bartow, GA | 40.0 | 2,613 | 9 | 70 | $5 million to $50 million |
| March 27 | 2:23 PM EST | F3 | Lumpkin, GA | 23.0 | 1,320 | 3 | 15 | $500,000 to $5 million |
| March 27 | 2:35 PM EST | F2 | Bartow, GA | 2.0 | 440 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| March 27 | 2:42 PM EST | F0 | Dawson, GA | 4.0 | 220 | $500 to $5,000 | ||
| March 27 | 2:04 PM CST | F3 | Habersham, GA to SC | 28.0 | 1,760 | 37 | $500,000 to $5 million | |
| March 27 | 2:55 PM CST | F2 | Spartanburg, SC to NC | 45.4 | 100 | 13 | $500,000 to $5 million | |
| March 27 | 4:30 PM EST | F1 | Spartanburg, SC | 33.0 | 100 | 4 | $50,000 to $500,000 | |
| March 27 | 4:40 PM EST | F1 | Greenville, SC | 18.0 | 50 | $500 to $5,000 | ||
| March 27 | 4:02 PM CST | F1 | Tuscaloosa, AL | 2.0 | 100 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| March 27 | 6:01 PM EST | F3 | Polk, GA | 21.0 | 880 | 30 | $500,000 to $5 million | |
| March 27 | 6:04 PM EST | F1 | Floyd, GA | 9.3 | 110 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| March 27 | 5:27 PM CST | F3 | Gaston, SC to NC | 18.5 | 200 | 2 | $5 million to $50 million | |
| March 27 | 5:31 PM CST | F2 | Shelby, AL | 12.0 | 300 | 53 | $500,000 to $5 million | |
| March 27 | 6:40 PM EST | F0 | Alamance, NC | 0.1 | 10 | $500,000 to $5 million | ||
| March 27 | 7:00 PM EST | F0 | Randolph, NC | 0.1 | 10 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| March 27 | 7:35 PM EST | F1 | Haralson, GA | 2.0 | 220 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| March 27 | 8:10 PM EST | F0 | Cobb, GA | 1.2 | 150 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| March 27 | 12:50 AM EST | F0 | Greenville, SC | 0.1 | 30 | $500 to $5,000 |
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.