Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2004
F2 tornado, Summerdale to Seminole, Alabama, November 27, 2004
From Summerdale to Seminole, this F2 tornado ran 4.5 miles across Baldwin County on November 27, 2004, touching down at 11:35 AM CST and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 4, and did $400,000 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 mph
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 mphthis tornado
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
- F2
- Date
- November 27, 2004
- Touchdown
- 11:35 AM CST (17:35 UTC)
- Path length
- 4.5 miles (7.2 km)
- Path width
- 300 yards (274 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 4
- Property damage
- $400,000
- County
- Baldwin County
- Touchdown point
- 30.480, -87.700
- Lift-off point
- 30.480, -87.700
- Record number
- 692
What the Weather Service recorded
An F2 touched down just west of Summerdale along County Road 32. The tornado then tracked east northeast and moved through downtown Summerdale. The tornado continued moving east and went back into the clouds east of Summerdale. Most of the damage from the tornado occurred in downtown Summerdale. Bleachers from a new ball field were found about a quarter mile away next to a house. A school bus was pushed sideways 15 to 20 feet by the winds. Five homes were destroyed with 35 to 40 homes suffering damage. Four minor injuries were reported. People heard the warning and took cover before the tornado hit. This same area was hit hard by Hurricane Ivan in September.
An F1 tornado touched down just west of Seminole and damaged several homes near the Styx and Perdido rivers. Most of the damage was to roofs with numerous trees blown down. The tornado tracked east and moved into Escambia County Florida. No injuries were reported.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
7 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:28 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:28 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | MOB |
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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:26 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 radar
The Mobile radar (KMOB), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:34 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 27, 2004
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 27 | 7:50 AM CST | F1 | Terrebonne Parish, LA | 0.5 | 30 | $50,000 | ||
| November 27 | 11:35 AM CST | F0 | Baldwin, AL | 1.5 | 200 | $10,000 | ||
| November 27 | 11:45 AM CST | F0 | Baldwin, AL | 0.1 | 50 | $30,000 | ||
| November 27 | 11:55 AM CST | F1 | Escambia, AL to FL | 4.0 | 200 | $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.