Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2013

EF1 tornado, Laurendine to Bellefontaine, Alabama, April 11, 2013

From Laurendine to Bellefontaine, this EF1 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Mobile County on April 11, 2013, touching down at 5:29 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1.5 million of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF1
Date
April 11, 2013
Touchdown
5:29 PM CDT (22:29 UTC)
Lifted
5:30 PM CDT (22:30 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1.5 million
County
Mobile County
Touchdown point
30.513, -88.146
Lift-off point
30.518, -88.134
Record number
1304111629-01

The damage survey

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

What the Weather Service recorded

On the Afternoon of Thursday April 11, a line of strong to briefly severe thunderstorms crossed Southwest Alabama with isolated reports of severe weather damage.

A brief tornado developed along a squall line of thunderstorms moving across east central Mobile county, producing significant damage to 3 large storage warehouses, various outbuildings and numerous automobiles at the Evonik chemical processing plant on Degussa Road near the Theodore Industrial Canal. Approximately 30 employee automobiles had the windows broken from flying debris.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:30 UTC and running to 22:56 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
08:47 UTC05:00 UTCRip Currents StatementMOB
15:00 UTC00:00 UTCWind AdvisoryMOB
18:30 UTC22:56 UTCTornado WatchMOB
22:27 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMOB
22:43 UTC22:53 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:45 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

10.5 hours before the tornado, 153 km from the path. April 11, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 12:00Z on 2013-04-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1207 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 495 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2013-04-11The 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 89 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1207 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1564 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
495 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
89 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
205 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
5.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.5 hours after it, 153 km from the path. April 12, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Slidell Radar S, LA at 00:00Z on 2013-04-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -77717, lifted condensation level 661 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2013-04-12The 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 -201 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 83 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-77717 J/kg
Surface CAPE
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
661 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
83 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-201 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-153 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mobile Downtown (BFM), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:49 UTC73.471.6170° 12 kt201005.1-TSRA BR
20:53 UTC7472160° 12 kt201005.1TS BR
21:10 UTC73.471.6160° 11 kt221004.1BR
21:41 UTC73.471.6170° 13 kt281002.7TSRA BR
21:53 UTC7472180° 19 kt331003+TSRA BR
22:53 UTC7069210° 8 kt151005.4+TSRA BR
22:57 UTC69.868250° 6 kt141005.4+TSRA BR
23:15 UTC69.868310° 4 kt1003.7RA BR
23:53 UTC6968190° 3 kt1003.7-RA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 21 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:30 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Ese TheodoreMobile, ALMULTIPLE WAREHOUSES SUSTAINED ROOF DAMAGE.
22:40 UTCMARINE TSTM WIND 43Meaher State ParkBaldwin, AL

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 11, 2013

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 1111:35 AM CDTEF3Kemper, MS to AL66.31,32019$1.2 million
April 111:05 PM CDTEF1Saint Tammany Parish, LA8.8120$100,000
April 112:45 PM CDTEF1Walker, AL5.5500
April 112:57 PM CDTEF1Winston, AL2.6250
April 113:10 PM CDTEF1Winston, AL1.2300
April 113:26 PM CDTEF1Winston, AL0.4501
April 114:18 PM CDTEF1Bibb, AL20.2800
April 114:20 PM CDTEF1Madison, AL6.6300
April 114:32 PM CDTEF1Madison, AL1.375
April 116:23 PM EDTEF0Haralson, GA5.7150$30,000
April 117:01 PM EDTEF0Polk, GA0.425$15,000
April 119:23 PM EDTEF1Lumpkin, GA4.1250$325,000
April 118:34 PM CDTEF2Macon, AL5.12001

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.