Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1996

F1 tornado, Aliceville, Alabama, April 14, 1996

This F1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Pickens County on April 14, 1996, touching down at 5:38 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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 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
April 14, 1996
Touchdown
5:38 PM CDT (22:38 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$200,000
County
Pickens County
Touchdown point
33.130, -88.150
Lift-off point
33.130, -88.150
Record number
135

What the Weather Service recorded

In Aliceville, two mobile homes were destroyed and 12 houses and two other buildings were damaged by falling trees. A nursing home roof was taken off and several cars were damaged by falling trees in what was apparently a tornado.

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

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.

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 12:00Z

10.6 hours before the tornado, 128 km from the path. April 14, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 1996-04-14Temperature 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 -59303, lifted condensation level 1269 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, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 1996-04-14The 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 31 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-59303 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1269 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
31 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
72 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
1.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 00:00Z

1.4 hours after it, 128 km from the path. April 15, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 1996-04-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 915 joules per kilogram, CIN -53, lifted condensation level 1546 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, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 1996-04-15The 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 128 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
915 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-53 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1014 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1546 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
128 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
113 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Tuscaloosa Municipal (TCL), 51 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 14, 1996

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 141:40 PM CDTF0Saint Tammany Parish, LA0.110
April 142:45 PM CDTF0Harrison, MS0.510
April 147:10 PM CDTF4Stone, AR44.0880735$3.0 million
April 148:40 PM CDTF0Rapides Parish, LA0.210$10,000

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.