F1 tornado, Foley to Fairhope, Alabama, November 8, 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

November 8, 2000

Touchdown

11:50 AM CST (17:50 UTC)

Path length

2.5 miles (4.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Baldwin County

Touchdown point

30.520, -87.900

Lift-off point

30.520, -87.900

Record number

595

A low topped thunderstorm produced a brief F1 tornado about 1 mile Southeast of the community. The tornado first touched down in the Leisure Lakes subdivision causing minor roof damage to a few homes. The tornado then moved Northeast into the neighboring Glen Lakes subdivision, where it intensified and caused moderate roof and structural damage to several homes. The tornado then lifted back into the thunderstorm cloud.

A tornado, the second in Baldwin county in a 20 minute time period, formed just south of Fairhope. The tornado touched down just south of the intersection of Highway 27 and Highway 32, narrowly missing a trailer park and a nearby school, but producing some tree damage and minor damage to one trailer just south of the intersection. The tornado then skipped along Highway 27 for about one mile, where it caused minor damage to one home in the Woodmere subdivision.

A tornado, the third in Baldwin county in a 45 minute time period, developed and followed a path very similar to a weaker tornado that occurred about 20 minutes earlier. This tornado touched down near the intersection of Highway 27 and Highway 32, moved northeast into the Woodmere subdivision (the same subdivision affected by a weaker tornado some 20 minutes earlier). This tornado produced moderate roof and structural damage to several homes in the Woodmere subdivision. The tornado then continued northeast into the Quail Creek subdivision, where it produced minor damage to a few homes, mainly to garage doors. The damage path through the two subdivisions was intermittent, suggesting that the tornado skipped across the ground. As the tornado moved out of the Quail Creek subdivision, it lifted off the ground, but continued moving northeast as a funnel cloud. Reports of a funnel cloud, not in contact with the ground, were received as the parent thunderstorm moved northeast toward Interstate 10 and then east of Bay Minette. No additional damage was reported.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:42 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:15 UTC.

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:46 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 Downtown (BFM), 20 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 2000 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.