F0 tornado, Mobile to Saraland, Alabama, October 9, 1999

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

October 9, 1999

Touchdown

4:20 AM CDT (09:20 UTC)

Path length

0.7 miles (1.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

County

Mobile County

Touchdown point

30.700, -88.170

Lift-off point

30.700, -88.170

Record number

665

An F0 tornado touched down just west of I-65 and Airport Boulevard. The tornado first touched down at the Lafayette Apartments near Downtowner Boulevard and damaged several apartment roofs. A brick wall was also blown down at the apartments. The tornado moved north and blew some trees and awnings down. The tornado crossed Airport and caused roof damage to some apartments at Maison De Ville. The tornado continued moving north and blew some trees down north of Conway before lifting back into the clouds. The tornado spent most of its time at tree or roof level. No injuries were reported.

Around 415 AM CST...a tornado (F1) touched down in Saraland, near the Walmart Superstore. The roof of the store was damaged. The tornado then skipped across Industrial Parkway and touched down again on Sheldon Beach Road near Goldenrod. From here the worst damage occurred with several businesses and one home damaged. Power lines were also blown down. The tornado moved north and crossed I-65and a nearby service road where some trees were also blown down. The tornado then moved across a wooded area and touched down again near Alvarez and Wilson Roads. From here several homes suffered roof damage along with more trees down. The tornado continued to skip along the ground and touched down near Forest and Robert Williams Roads; more trees were damaged in this area. Before lifting back into the cloud, the storm did tree and power line damage along Martha Alleyn Road. No injuries were reported.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:53 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.

Mobile/Bates Field (MOB), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 1999 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.