Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1996

F1 tornado, Pisgah, Alabama, March 16, 1996

This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Jackson County on March 16, 1996, touching down at 1:15 PM CST and reaching 80 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $90,000 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
March 16, 1996
Touchdown
1:15 PM CST (19:15 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
80 yards (73 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
Property damage
$90,000
County
Jackson County
Touchdown point
34.700, -85.800
Lift-off point
34.720, -85.770
Record number
75

What the Weather Service recorded

What was believed to be a tornado destroyed two mobile homes and damaged several other buildings between Pisgah and Rosalie in the eastern portion of Jackson County. Two people sustained injuries when the mobile homes were destroyed.

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.

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 11:48 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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

7.3 hours before the tornado, 174 km from the path. March 16, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1996-03-16Temperature 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 -66598, lifted condensation level 1365 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1996-03-16The 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 224 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
-66598 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1365 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
224 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
286 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

4.7 hours after it, 174 km from the path. March 17, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1996-03-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 139 joules per kilogram, CIN -111, lifted condensation level 1089 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1996-03-17The 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 25 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 85 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
139 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-111 J/kg
Surface CAPE
197 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1089 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
85 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
25 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
147 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Chattanooga/Lovell (CHA), 64 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:00 UTC6858170° 5 kt1007.5
18:01 UTC180° 8 kt1007.5
19:00 UTC6858180° 8 kt1006.4-RA
20:00 UTC6361320° 7 kt1005.1+RA FG
20:08 UTC270° 5 kt1005.8+RA FG
20:13 UTC280° 4 kt1005.8-RA FG
20:16 UTC270° 4 kt1005.4-RA FG
20:21 UTC270° 3 kt1005.8-RA FG
21:00 UTC6662190° 4 kt1005.1

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 March 16, 1996

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 164:05 PM CSTF2Overton, TN6.04001$5.5 million
March 164:30 PM CSTF0Fentress, TN7.0100$150,000
March 166:15 PM ESTF0Scott, TN1.01001$160,000
March 1610:17 PM ESTF0Fairfield, SC0.350$2,000
March 1610:38 PM ESTF0Kershaw, SC0.240

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.