Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1996

F1 tornado, Eclectic to Jacksons Gap, Alabama, March 18, 1996

From Eclectic to Jacksons Gap, this F1 tornado ran 6.0 miles across Coosa, Elmore and Tallapoosa counties on March 18, 1996, touching down at 6:52 PM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500,000 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 18, 1996
Touchdown
6:52 PM CST (00:52 UTC)
Path length
6.0 miles (9.7 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500,000
Counties
Coosa, Elmore and Tallapoosa counties
Touchdown point
32.820, -86.180
Lift-off point
32.780, -85.970
Record number
1126

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado began about 7 miles northwest of Eclectic and just west of Lake Martin. The path crossed the extreme southeast corner of Coosa County and crossed just barely into Tallapoosa County before ending. The track was about 6 miles long and about 100 yards wide with an F1 intensity. A number of homes near Lake Martin in Coosa County suffered serious damage.

A small tornado rated an F1 occurred in central Tallapoosa County beginning just north of Jackson's Gap and travelling about 6 miles along the ground running primarily through farm/woodland areas. Several structures were damaged with numerous trees downed.

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

The warnings

48 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:04 UTC, 48 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:49 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBMX
00:04 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningBMX
00:59 UTC01:30 UTCTornado WarningBMX
01:35 UTC02:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBMX

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.

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 12:00Z

11.1 hours after it, 78 km from the path. March 19, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 1996-03-19Temperature 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 0, lifted condensation level 571 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 1996-03-19The 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 -108 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 79 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
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
571 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
79 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-108 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-84 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Maxwell Afb/Montgom (MXF), 54 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:00 UTC7454.86130° 14 kt996.6
00:00 UTC70.8858110° 17 kt994.6-TSRA

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

The radar

The Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 40 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:52 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

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 185:30 PM CSTF1Clarke, AL8.020015$1.0 million
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 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.