F4 tornado, Limestone to Scottsboro, Alabama, May 18, 1995

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

F4

Date

May 18, 1995

Touchdown

5:33 PM CDT (22:33 UTC)

Path length

39.0 miles (62.8 km)

Path width

1,300 yards (1189 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

55

Property damage

$500,000 to $5 million

Counties

Limestone, Madison and Jackson counties

Touchdown point

34.830, -87.030

Lift-off point

34.800, -86.250

Record number

481

A supercell thunderstorm produced a violent tornado that began 3 miles northwest of Athens in Limestone County and moved on a path just slightly north of east completely across Madison County before ending in northwestern Jackson County about 15 miles northwest of Scottsboro. The tornado path varied from very narrow at the beginning and end to about three-quarters of a mile wide at the widest location in Madison County. Intensity varied from F0 intensity near both ends of the track to F4 at the strongest in several locations in Madison County. Damage along the track was primarily in the F2 and F3 category. Evidence in the damage as seen through an aerial survey indicated that the tornado was probably a multiple vortex with indications of at least two vortices within the main tornado funnel. The tornado began at 1633 CST in Limestone County crossing Interstate 65 and Highway 251 where the mobile home park was destroyed. It reached the Limestone/Madison county line at 1650 CST. The trek across Madison County saw the tornado move near the communities of Harvest, Meridianville, Buckhorn, and Fannings Crossing before moving into the rugged terrain of eastern Madison County. The tornado crossed the Madison/Jackson county line at 1721 CST. The tornado track was much weaker in Jackson County as it moved through rugged terrain affecting very few structures. The track ended about 15 miles northwest of Scottsboro or a few miles west of the community of Hytop. Damage was the heaviest at a mobile home park about three miles northeast of Athens along Highway 251. The only fatality that occurred in this tornado occurred at this mobile home park, and the person died later from injuries received in the tornado. Twenty-six mobile homes were destroyed in Limestone County, 13 in the Oakdale Mobile Home Park. Another 35 buildings were damaged or destroyed in Limestone County where damage was estimated to be $1.5 million. About 9,500 electric customers were without electricity. A cow was also killed when a large tree fell on and crushed it. Another especially hard hit area was Anderson Hills subdivision in Madison County with houses ranging in price from $175,000 to $400,000. This area of well-constructed dwellings was one of the locations where F4 damage was evident as well as indications of a multiple vortex structure. In Anderson Hills, 21 houses were destroyed and 39 sustained major damage. Damage across the rest of Madison County was less concentrated than in this one subdivision. Over 10,000 Huntsville Utility Company customers were without power. M30M

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:10 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 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 05:45 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 1995 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

78 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 79 of them

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.