Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2001

F0 tornado, (Mob)Mobile Bates Fl, Alabama, June 11, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 2.5 miles across Mobile County on June 11, 2001, touching down at 7:40 AM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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
June 11, 2001
Touchdown
7:40 AM CDT (12:40 UTC)
Path length
2.5 miles (4.0 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Mobile County
Touchdown point
30.680, -88.230
Lift-off point
30.680, -88.230
Record number
196

What the Weather Service recorded

An F0 tornado first touched down in southwest Mobile county about 8 miles southwest of the Mobile Regional Airport. The initial touchdown was near Jeff Hamilton Road, just to the east of Newman Road. The weak tornado moved across open fields and forest, moving across Newman Road near the Branson subdivision. The tornado then moved through the subdivision, blowing down several trees. Some homes were damaged as a result of the fallen trees, while other homes suffered roof damage due to the high winds. The tornado then moved north and crossed Airport Boulevard just west of Newman Road. More trees were blown down here, and several more homes suffered damage, mainly to roofs, from either fallen trees or high winds. The tornado then lifted back into the cloud, about 5 miles southwest of the Mobile Airport. The line of thunderstorms that produced the tornado was associated with the remnants of Tropical Storm Allison, which were moving east across the region.

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

The warnings

32 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:08 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
11:26 UTC12:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMOB
12:08 UTC12:45 UTCTornado WarningMOB
12:45 UTC13:15 UTCTornado 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:57 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

0.7 hours before the tornado, 149 km from the path. June 11, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2001-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 99 joules per kilogram, CIN -100, lifted condensation level 983 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 2001-06-11The 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 -62 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 knots.193958Sfc1 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
99 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-100 J/kg
Surface CAPE
303 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
983 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-62 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-16 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.3 hours after it, 149 km from the path. June 12, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2001-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 929 joules per kilogram, CIN -26, lifted condensation level 1326 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, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2001-06-12The 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 15 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 knots.1939Sfc1 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
929 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-26 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1722 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1326 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
15 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 11, 2001

29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 114:25 AM CDTF1Hancock, MS1.040$50,000
June 115:25 AM CDTF1Harrison, MS0.370$100,000
June 116:35 AM CDTF0Jackson, MS1.030$10,000
June 117:00 AM CDTF1George, MS10.0752$150,000
June 113:30 PM EDTF0Duval, FL0.1101$40,000
June 112:40 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.120
June 112:43 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.120
June 112:44 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.125
June 112:48 PM CDTF1Swift, MN0.120
June 112:49 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.120
June 112:55 PM CDTF0Todd, MN0.120
June 113:00 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.525
June 113:06 PM CDTF2Swift, MN8.01507$10 million
June 113:27 PM CDTF1Swift, MN7.050
June 113:33 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.225
June 113:39 PM CDTF1Kandiyohi, MN2.050
June 113:47 PM CDTF1Kandiyohi, MN1.0502
June 113:50 PM CDTF0Kandiyohi, MN0.525
June 114:25 PM CDTF1Meeker, MN0.550
June 113:30 PM PDTF0King, WA0.00
June 116:00 PM CDTF1Scott, MN0.550$50,000
June 116:05 PM CDTF0Covington, AL3.550$10,000
June 116:11 PM CDTF0Buffalo, WI1.550
June 119:00 PM EDTF0Atkinson, GA0.110$4,000
June 119:10 PM EDTF0Union, FL0.110$4,000
June 119:00 PM CDTF0Green Lake, WI0.230$100,000
June 119:13 PM CDTF1Dodge, WI8.075$700,000
June 119:45 PM CDTF1Washington, WI6.375$420,000
June 111:50 AM EDTF1Madison, FL0.31001$200,000

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.