Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1996

F2 tornado, Claiborne to Vredenburgh, Alabama, March 18, 1996

From Claiborne to Vredenburgh, this F2 tornado ran 11.0 miles across Monroe County on March 18, 1996, touching down at 6:07 PM CST and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 5, and did $150,000 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 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
March 18, 1996
Touchdown
6:07 PM CST (00:07 UTC)
Path length
11.0 miles (17.7 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
5
Property damage
$150,000
County
Monroe County
Touchdown point
31.530, -87.450
Lift-off point
31.730, -87.320
Record number
362

What the Weather Service recorded

THE SAME STORM SYSTEM THAT DROPPED A COUPLE OF TORNADOES IN CLARKE COUNTY MOVED INTO MONROE COUNTY AND DROPPED A TORNADO FOUR MILES EAST OF CLAIBORNE LAKE, JUST WEST OF COUNTY ROAD 17. THE TORNADO MOVED NORTHEAST AND MOVED THROUGH FRANKLIN ALONG STATE HWY 41. THE TORNADO THEN MOVED BACK INTO THE CLOUD JUST WEST OF COUNTY ROAD 56, SIX MILES SOUTH OF VREDENBURGH. THE TORNADO SKIPPED ALONG THE GROUND FOR ABOUT ELEVEN MILES. THREE MOBILE HOMES AND A HOUSE WERE DESTROYED NEAR FRANKLIN. FIVE PEOPLE WERE INJURED, BUT NONE SERIOUSLY. TREES AND POWER LINES WERE BLOWN DOWN ALONG THE TRACK OF THE TORNADO. SHEDS AND BARNS ALONG THE TRACK OF THE TORNADO ALSO SUFFERED DAMAGE. TREES FALLING ON HOMES ALSO CAUSED SOME STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. OTHER HOMES HAD ROOF DAMAGE WHEN SHINGLES WERE BLOWN OFF.

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

The warnings

20 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:47 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:47 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

11.9 hours after it, 153 km from the path. March 19, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL 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 -26357, lifted condensation level 1412 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 1996-03-19The 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 -166 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-26357 J/kg
Surface CAPE
7 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1412 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
85 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-166 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-178 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 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 185:30 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 186:52 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.