Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 1997

F0 tornado, Stevenson, Alabama, January 5, 1997

This F0 tornado ran 2.7 miles across Jackson County on January 5, 1997, touching down at 12:30 AM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $60,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
January 5, 1997
Touchdown
12:30 AM CST (06:30 UTC)
Path length
2.7 miles (4.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$60,000
County
Jackson County
Touchdown point
34.770, -85.730
Lift-off point
34.750, -85.700
Record number
15

What the Weather Service recorded

A thunderstorm hit the Flat Rock area at exactly 12:30 am with what was probably a weak tornado. A church sustained heavy damage; the west wall collapsed and the roof fell in. Forty to 50 -foot oak trees near the church were downed. About a mile down the path of damage, a roof had shingles lifted off and several large trees were downed. About two miles from the church, 15 to 20 large pine trees were downed. The damage was very isolated to the path. A house 100 feet from the church sustained no damage.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:07 UTC07:15 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 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), 00:00Z

6.5 hours before the tornado, 172 km from the path. January 5, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1997-01-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 153 joules per kilogram, CIN -39, lifted condensation level 789 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 1997-01-05The 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 426 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
153 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-39 J/kg
Surface CAPE
77 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
789 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
426 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
479 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

5.5 hours after it, 172 km from the path. January 5, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1997-01-05Temperature 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 -47970, lifted condensation level 1216 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 1997-01-05The 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 -109 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 89 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
-47970 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1216 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
89 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-109 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-20 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Chattanooga/Lovell (CHA), 56 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
04:53 UTC6961180° 11 kt181005.8
05:53 UTC6962180° 11 kt181004.7
07:00 UTC6862240° 12 kt1005.4+TSRA -RA
07:06 UTC57.255.4260° 14 kt311007.1+TSRA
07:10 UTC57.255.4270° 14 kt261006.8+TSRA
07:14 UTC57.255.4270° 11 kt221006.8+TSRA SHRA
07:35 UTC57.253.6210° 12 kt1007.1+TSRA SHRA
07:53 UTC5754260° 9 kt1006.8-TSRA BR
08:06 UTC57.253.6240° 6 kt1007.1-RA

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of January 5, 1997

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 53:20 AM ESTF1Wayne, OH0.250$50,000
January 56:55 AM CSTF2Henry, AL6.0100$180,000
January 510:15 AM ESTF0Bulloch, GA0.5234$30,000

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.