F0 tornado, Copeland to Millry, Alabama, March 18, 1996

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   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 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.

Rating

F0

Date

March 18, 1996

Touchdown

4:30 PM CST (22:30 UTC)

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Washington County

Touchdown point

31.570, -88.450

Lift-off point

31.580, -88.400

Record number

353

THE SAME STORM SYSTEM THAT DROPPED A TORNADO IN MISSISSIPPI MOVED INTO SOUTHWEST ALABAMA. ANOTHER TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT TWO MILES NORTHWEST OF COPELAND. THE TORNADO SKIPPED ALONG THE GROUND FOR ABOUT FOUR MILES BEFORE LIFTING BACK INTO THE CLOUD ABOUT TWO MILES NORTHEAST OF COPELAND. DAMAGE WAS CONFINED TO DOWNED TREES AND POWER LINES.

THE SAME STORM SYSTEM KEPT MOVING EAST NORTHEAST AND DROPPED ANOTHER TORNADO TWO MILES SOUTHEAST OF MILLRY. THE TORNADO SKIPPED ALONG THE GROUND AND CROSSED COUNTY ROAD 34 ABOUT THREE MILES EAST OF MILLRY. THE TORNADO STAYED ON THE GROUND FOR ABOUT FIVE MILES AND LIFTED BACK INTO THE CLOUD SIX MILES NORTHEAST OF MILLRY. DAMAGE WAS AGAIN CONFINED TO TREES AND POWER LINES.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:17 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

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 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 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.

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

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.