Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2000

F0 tornado, (Mob)Mobile Bates Fl, Alabama, November 24, 2000

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Mobile County on November 24, 2000, touching down at 10:40 AM CST and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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
November 24, 2000
Touchdown
10:40 AM CST (16:40 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Mobile County
Touchdown point
30.680, -88.230
Lift-off point
30.680, -88.230
Record number
596

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado developed just to the west of the Mobile Regional Airport, touching down along Newman Road. The brief tornado touchdown produced some minor shingle damage to the roofs of a couple of homes, minor damage to a few tin out buildings, and downed a couple of trees and a few power lines.

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

The warnings

24 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:16 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:04 UTC15:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMOB
16:16 UTC16:45 UTCTornado WarningMOB
16:44 UTC17:00 UTCTornado WarningMOB
17:00 UTC17:30 UTCTornado WarningMOB
17:44 UTC18:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMOB

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 16:22 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.

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 12:00Z

4.7 hours before the tornado, 149 km from the path. November 24, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2000-11-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 265 joules per kilogram, CIN -33, lifted condensation level 623 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2000-11-24The 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 421 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
265 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-33 J/kg
Surface CAPE
129 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
623 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
421 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
552 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
4.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Slidell Radar S, LA (KSIL), 00:00Z

7.3 hours after it, 149 km from the path. November 25, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2000-11-25Temperature 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 -74873, lifted condensation level 1029 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, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2000-11-25The 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 -25 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-74873 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1029 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-25 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-3 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 1 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:38 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

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 November 24, 2000

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 241:22 AM CSTF1Harris, TX1.0501$250,000
November 242:35 AM CSTF1Harris, TX1.0150$350,000
November 243:50 AM CSTF1Jasper, TX3.010$70,000

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.