Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2004
F0 tornado, Thomaston to Marion Jct, Alabama, November 24, 2004
From Thomaston to Marion Jct, this F0 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Marengo and Dallas counties on November 24, 2004, touching down at 4:43 AM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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, 2004
- Touchdown
- 4:43 AM CST (10:43 UTC)
- Path length
- 5.0 miles (8.0 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $30,000
- Counties
- Marengo and Dallas counties
- Touchdown point
- 32.270, -87.480
- Lift-off point
- 32.300, -87.400
- Record number
- 500
What the Weather Service recorded
A weak tornado touched down near the Marengo/Dallas county line. The tornado moved through mainly rural areas and caused very little structure damage. Numerous trees were blown down or snapped off along the entire tornado path. The tornado damage path was 5.0 miles long and 50 yards wide at its widest point.Begin: 32 16.91/87 29.53 End: 32 18.05/87 24.60
National Weather Service Meteorologists surveyed the damage across northern Dallas County and determined it was produced by and F1 tornado. The tornado first touched down near Marion Junction and moved northeastward across northern Dallas County. The tornado moved across mainly rural areas of the county at this time, but did partially damage several structures. Numerous trees were snapped off or blown down along the path. The tornado crossed SR 14 and SR 219 before dissipating on the southern end of the Summerfield Community. One person suffered minor injuries during the tornado. The tornado damage path was 14.6 miles long and 300 yards wide at its widest point. Begin: 32 26.66/87 14.44 End: 32 31.38/87 00.21
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
56 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:47 UTC, 56 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:45 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:47 UTC | 10:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | BMX |
| 11:23 UTC | 11:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | BMX |
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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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
10.7 hours before the tornado, 117 km from the path. November 24, 2004.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 748 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -25 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 117 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 728 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 10 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 84 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 342 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.3
- Supercell composite
- 1.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
The radar
The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 117 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:42 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 2004 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of November 24, 2004
49 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 24 | 12:30 AM CST | F2 | Saint Tammany Parish, LA | 4.0 | 50 | 4 | $750,000 | |
| November 24 | 12:33 AM CST | F0 | Hinds, MS | 1.0 | 30 | $2,000 | ||
| November 24 | 12:35 AM CST | F0 | Madison, MS | 6.0 | 40 | $2,000 | ||
| November 24 | 12:54 AM CST | F2 | Lawrence, MS | 28.0 | 200 | $1.5 million | ||
| November 24 | 1:15 AM CST | F2 | Leake, MS | 10.5 | 400 | $300,000 | ||
| November 24 | 1:32 AM CST | F1 | Lawrence, MS | 7.0 | 75 | $30,000 | ||
| November 24 | 1:43 AM CST | F1 | Leake, MS | 3.0 | 75 | $120,000 | ||
| November 24 | 1:53 AM CST | F2 | Smith, MS | 38.0 | 600 | 4 | $7.0 million | |
| November 24 | 2:10 AM CST | F0 | Stone, MS | 0.3 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:19 AM CST | F1 | Neshoba, MS | 4.0 | 100 | $30,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:25 AM CST | F3 | Winston, MS | 21.0 | 600 | 1 | 2 | $2.7 million |
| November 24 | 2:40 AM CST | F0 | Perry, MS | 0.2 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:41 AM CST | F1 | Lauderdale, MS | 12.0 | 300 | $150,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:50 AM CST | F1 | Noxubee, MS | 7.5 | 200 | $70,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:50 AM CST | F1 | Lincoln, MS | 3.0 | 150 | $60,000 | ||
| November 24 | 3:07 AM CST | F1 | Noxubee, MS | 5.0 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| November 24 | 3:10 AM CST | F0 | Greene, MS | 0.3 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 3:25 AM CST | F0 | Wayne, MS | 0.2 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 4:10 AM CST | F2 | Marengo, AL | 11.9 | 200 | 2 | $140,000 | |
| November 24 | 4:35 AM CST | F1 | Clarke, AL | 3.0 | 100 | $200,000 | ||
| November 24 | 4:40 AM CST | F0 | Choctaw, AL | 0.5 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 4:50 AM CST | F1 | Jefferson Parish, LA | 4.5 | 75 | $250,000 | ||
| November 24 | 5:07 AM CST | F1 | Dallas, AL | 14.7 | 300 | 1 | $100,000 | |
| November 24 | 5:10 AM CST | F0 | Stone, MS | 0.2 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 5:28 AM CST | F0 | Jefferson, AL | 1.0 | 50 | $70,000 | ||
| November 24 | 5:49 AM CST | F2 | Autauga, AL | 49.0 | 1,400 | $630,000 | ||
| November 24 | 5:56 AM CST | F0 | Dallas, AL | 1.1 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:00 AM CST | F2 | Harrison, MS | 1.5 | 50 | $3.0 million | ||
| November 24 | 6:24 AM CST | F2 | Autauga, AL | 9.7 | 500 | 1 | $900,000 | |
| November 24 | 6:36 AM CST | F1 | Talladega, AL | 0.9 | 50 | $80,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:41 AM CST | F0 | Talladega, AL | 5.7 | 250 | $640,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:48 AM CST | F0 | Talladega, AL | 3.3 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:48 AM CST | F0 | Elmore, AL | 2.4 | 50 | $120,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:59 AM CST | F2 | Talladega, AL | 15.2 | 500 | 1 | $210,000 | |
| November 24 | 7:09 AM CST | F1 | Clay, AL | 13.7 | 300 | $260,000 | ||
| November 24 | 7:10 AM CST | F0 | Mobile, AL | 0.1 | 20 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 7:24 AM CST | F0 | Montgomery, AL | 4.8 | 75 | $40,000 | ||
| November 24 | 7:35 AM CST | F0 | Tallapoosa, AL | 0.8 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 7:55 AM CST | F0 | Baldwin, AL | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| November 24 | 8:09 AM CST | F0 | Lee, AL | 0.2 | 30 | $30,000 | ||
| November 24 | 8:55 AM CST | F1 | Santa Rosa, FL | 1.0 | 50 | $70,000 | ||
| November 24 | 10:41 AM CST | F1 | Walton, FL | 0.2 | 100 | $40,000 | ||
| November 24 | 10:55 AM CST | F0 | Walton, FL | 0.2 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 11:50 AM CST | F0 | Bay, FL | 0.1 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 2:25 PM EST | F0 | Union, SC | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| November 24 | 3:03 PM EST | F0 | Aiken, SC | 0.5 | 80 | |||
| November 24 | 5:25 PM EST | F1 | Rush, IN | 2.1 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| November 24 | 6:02 PM EST | F0 | Wayne, IN | 0.1 | 10 | $10,000 | ||
| November 24 | 10:10 PM EST | F0 | Decatur, IN | 0.5 | 50 | $30,000 |
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.