Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1996

F1 tornado, Jackson Muni Arpt to Gosport, Alabama, March 18, 1996

From Jackson Muni Arpt to Gosport, this F1 tornado ran 8.0 miles across Clarke County on March 18, 1996, touching down at 5:30 PM CST and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 15, and did $1.0 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.

  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 18, 1996
Touchdown
5:30 PM CST (23:30 UTC)
Path length
8.0 miles (12.9 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
15
Property damage
$1.0 million
County
Clarke County
Touchdown point
31.470, -87.900
Lift-off point
31.530, -87.780
Record number
360

What the Weather Service recorded

A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST EAST OF U. S. HWY 43, JUST SOUTH OF JACKSON NEAR THE BOISE CASCADE PLANT AND THE AIRPORT. HEAVY DAMAGE WAS SUSTAINED AT THE BOISE CASCADE PLANT TO A BUILDING UNDER CONSTRUCTION. SEVERAL HOMES NEAR THE AIRPORT ALSO SUFFERED ROOF DAMAGE. THE TORNADO MOVED NORTHEAST AND CROSSED STATE HIGHWAY 2 AND THEN PASSED JUST SOUTH OF WALKER SPRINGS. SEVERAL HOMES WERE DAMAGED HERE, WITH SEVERAL BARNS AND OUTBUILDINGS AND A TRAILER BEING DESTROYED. A LADY IN THE TRAILER CRAWLED UNDER A TRACTOR TO ESCAPE THE TORNADO. ANOTHER LADY ESCAPED INJURY BY HIDING IN THE CLOSET OF HER HOME. FIFTEEN PEOPLE WERE INJURED BUT NONE SERIOUSLY AND THREE COWS WERE ALSO KILLED. MOST OF THE OTHER DAMAGE WAS TO SHINGLES BEING BLOWN FROM ROOFS AND ALSO FROM TREES BEING BLOWN ON HOMES. THE TORNADO THEN LIFTED BACK INTO THE CLOUD NEAR COUNTY ROAD 29. THE TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND FOR ABOUT EIGHT MILES.

THE SAME STORM SYSTEM THAT DROPPED A TORNADO NEAR THE CITY OF JACKSON, DROPPED ANOTHER TORNADO JUST WEST OF COUNTY ROAD 35, TWO MILES SOUTH OF SUGGSVILLE. THE TORNADO CONTINUED MOVING NORTHEAST BEFORE LIFTING BACK INTO THE CLOUD NEAR U. S. HWY 84, THREE MILES NORTHWEST OF GOSPORT. THE TORNADO SKIPPED ALONG THE GROUND FOR ABOUT FIVE MILES. OUTBUILDINGS, SHEDS AND BARNS WERE DAMAGED. A COUPLE OF HOMES SUFFERED ROOF DAMAGE FROM SHINGLES BEING BLOWN OFF. A COUPLE OF BUILDINGS ALSO SUFFERED DAMAGE WHEN TREES FELL ON THEM.

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

The warnings

39 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:51 UTC, 39 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:51 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningMOB
00:00 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningMOB

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 High Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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.

Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL (KVPS), 12:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 171 km from the path. March 18, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL at 12:00Z on 1996-03-18Temperature 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 -17049, lifted condensation level 812 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, Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL at 12:00Z on 1996-03-18The 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 -165 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
-17049 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
812 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-165 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-145 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 18, 1996

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 182:05 PM CSTF1Copiah, MS4.0100$100,000
March 182:15 PM CSTF1Rankin, MS9.0100$50,000
March 182:20 PM CSTF0Simpson, MS2.570$4,000
March 183:30 PM CSTF1Perry, MS12.0300$30,000
March 183:50 PM CSTF1Wayne, MS12.0300$10,000
March 184:16 PM CSTF1Perry, MS8.0200$10,000
March 184:22 PM CSTF1Wayne, MS3.0200$10,000
March 184:30 PM CSTF0Washington, AL4.0300$10,000
March 184:34 PM CSTF0Washington, AL5.0300$10,000
March 184:45 PM CSTF0Wayne, MS12.0200$40,000
March 185:00 PM CSTF1Clarke, AL3.0250$50,000
March 185:30 PM CSTF0Clarke, AL3.02001$70,000
March 185:45 PM CSTF1Clarke, AL5.0200$30,000
March 186:05 PM CSTF1Dallas, AL4.070$120,000
March 186:07 PM CSTF2Monroe, AL11.02005$150,000
March 186:52 PM CSTF1Coosa, AL6.0100$500,000
March 187:12 PM CSTF1Tallapoosa, AL6.090$150,000
March 187:12 PM CSTF2Lowndes, AL19.01002$100,000
March 188:05 PM CSTF1Elmore, AL0.970$150,000
March 188:23 PM CSTF3Elmore, AL24.0440$700,000

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.