F0 tornado, Hueytown to Bluff Park, Alabama, May 31, 2004

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.

Rating

F0

Date

May 31, 2004

Touchdown

4:22 AM CDT (09:22 UTC)

Path length

1.7 miles (2.7 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

33.430, -86.980

Lift-off point

33.430, -86.950

Record number

170

An F0 tornado touched down just east of Virginia Drive and traveled east southeast across the southern part of Hueytown. The tornado crossed Hueytown Road and ended just west of Brookline Drive. At least 20 homes were damaged by falling trees and 6 homes suffered major damage. The tornado path was 1.7 miles long and 150 yards wide at its widest point. Thousands of electric customers were left without power for several hours after the storm.Begin: 33 26 35/87 00 35 End: 33 25 72/86 58 75

An F0 tornado began near the crest of Shades Mountain in Bluff Park. This tornado traveled east southeast, moving through Bluff Park and Hoover, and ended near Rocky Ridge Road just east of Interstate 65. At least 73 homes were damaged, mainly by fallen trees. At least 5 homes suffered major damage. Several automobiles were damaged or destroyed by fallen trees. Several businesses along US 31 and on Lorna Road sustained varying degrees of roof damage. Numerous trees were knocked down, snapped off, or uprooted along the path. The tornado path was 4.24 miles long and 150 yards wide at its widest point. Begin: 33 24 80/86 51 28 End: 33 24 04/86 46 61

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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:47 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 Birmingham radar (KBMX), 34 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:22 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.