F1 tornado, Dixons Mills, Alabama, January 9, 2000

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.

Rating

F1

Date

January 9, 2000

Touchdown

11:05 PM CST (05:05 UTC)

Path length

6.5 miles (10.5 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Marengo County

Touchdown point

32.050, -87.780

Lift-off point

32.050, -87.700

Record number

3

A tornado was reported first touching down just inside the Marengo County line about 3 miles south of Dixons Mills. The storm then crossed U. S. Highway 43 about 2.5 miles south of Dixons Mills . Storm track was northeast...crossing County Road 37 and then across State Highway 10 just west of County Road 55. The storm then moved across County Roads 55 and 45. Almost all the damage along this track was to trees. The tornado appeared to be near tree top level along this path.The storm then moved across County Road 56 near Surginer just to the east of County Road 45. This is where most of the structural damage occurred. Two mobile homes were demolished. One home sustained major roof damage, while two others suffered roof and structural damage along County Road 56. Damage was also done to barns and outbuildings here. The tornado lifted back into the cloud just north of County Road 56. 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.

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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:06 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 2000 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.