Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2000

F0 tornado, Heiberger to Lawley, Alabama, March 10, 2000

From Heiberger to Lawley, this F0 tornado ran 12.0 miles across Bibb and Perry counties on March 10, 2000, touching down at 9:11 PM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 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
March 10, 2000
Touchdown
9:11 PM CST (03:11 UTC)
Path length
12.0 miles (19.3 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$40,000
Counties
Bibb and Perry counties
Touchdown point
32.880, -87.100
Lift-off point
32.900, -86.930
Record number
688

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado began just inside the Perry County border near SR 219 and continued on a 12 mile path into Bibb County. The tornado ended just south of Randolph near CR 36. One home had its front porch ripped off and corners of the roof partially torn up in Perry County near SR 219. Numerous trees were knocked down or snapped off during the entire track of the tornado. In Bibb County, one mobile home had damage to its roof and siding. Another home sustained minor roof damage near SR 219. In Lawley, one tree fell onto a mobile home damaging it severely. Several barns were also damaged and a few homes had minor roof damage. The tornado traveled through mostly rural areas. Beginning: 32 50.147/87 6.718 Ending: 32 53.803/86 55.024

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
22:52 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBMX
23:23 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBMX
00:34 UTC01:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBMX
02:45 UTC03:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBMX
03:20 UTC03:45 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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:49 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.

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 00:00Z

3.2 hours before the tornado, 39 km from the path. March 11, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 2000-03-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 425 joules per kilogram, CIN -84, lifted condensation level 1281 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 2000-03-11The 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 201 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 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
425 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-84 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1084 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1281 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
201 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
290 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 12:00Z

8.8 hours after it, 39 km from the path. March 11, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 2000-03-11Temperature 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 -63254, lifted condensation level 642 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 2000-03-11The 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 -4 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-63254 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
642 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
84 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 10, 2000

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 104:53 PM CSTF0Vernon Parish, LA1.020$1,000
March 105:40 PM CSTF1Llano, TX1.0100$10,000
March 105:41 PM CSTF0Llano, TX0.120
March 105:58 PM CSTF0Llano, TX0.110
March 106:35 PM CSTF0Bell, TX0.110
March 107:55 PM CSTF3Burleson, TX21.08002$1.0 million
March 108:05 PM CSTF0Grimes, TX0.550$10,000
March 108:15 PM CSTF0Tuscaloosa, AL1.860$50,000
March 108:28 PM CSTF0Tuscaloosa, AL3.350$10,000
March 108:56 PM CSTF0Perry, AL7.0100$40,000
March 109:22 PM CSTF1Jefferson, AL1.5200$500,000

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.