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Tuscaloosa Tornado - January 24, 1997
Radar images, including reflectivity, storm relative motion, and precipitation.
National Weather Service meteorologists were able to survey
the damage caused by the tornado that struck the Tuscaloosa area on
the afternoon of January 24, 1997. The following is the
information from that survey. Special thanks go to the Tuscaloosa
Police Department for their assistance in providing a helicopter
for an aerial survey. Note: to view a larger image of some of the pictures contained on this page,
just click on the image.
This photograph of the tornado that struck Tuscaloosa on the
afternoon of January 27, 1997, was taken by Darrel Lee from his front porch in Cottondale. He
is looking west-northwest at the tornado only a short time after it had struck the five points area
where the Food World and Big B stores were heavily damaged. The tornado was moving northeast
and dissipated only a short time after this photograph was made. Special thanks to Mr. Lee for allowing
the National Weather Service to use his photograph for public service purposes.
At approximately 5:00 pm, a tornado began on the east side of
the Warrior River, South of Interstate 59 and west of County Road
95. Click here for a graphic showing
the tornado track (29kb size).
Besides trees, the initial damage was to shingles of an
apartment complex in the Crabtree area.
The tornado moved on a northeasterly track crossing U. S. 82
and Interstate 59. Two businesses, Books-A-Million and Gayfer's,
sustained roof damage.
The tornado became stronger after crossing Interstate 59 with
significantly greater damage from this point to the end of the
path. Numerous trees were downed, some roofs were damaged, and
several out buildings were destroyed in the Woodland Hills
residential area.
Several buildings were damaged at Five Points East, the
intersection of State Roads 215 and 216, including Food World and
Big-B, among others. Cars were tossed about like toys. One
vehicle was tossed through the roof of the Food World. Another car
was tossed from the parking lot of the Food World into the backyard
of a house immediately northeast of Food World, a distance of 300
to 400 feet.
The tornado continued northeast through the Lynn Haven
residential area causing significant damage to numerous homes. Ten
to twelve homes sustained damage that ranged from partial roof loss
to total roof loss.
The tornado continued across Tuscaloosa Memorial Gardens
Cemetery, paralleling and crossing State Road 216. Six to eight
houses in the Summerfield subdivision sustained light to moderate
damage. A couple of mobile homes and several other buildings
including a small corner grocery-type business were destroyed. The
tornado dissipated in a wooded area just north of State Road 216
shortly after that around 5:15 pm.
Tuscaloosa County EMA estimates that between 90 and 100
structures sustained some degree of damage.
The total tornado path length was 10 miles with a path width
of about 200 yards. On the Fujita scale of tornado intensity, from
F0 as the weakest to F5 as the strongest, the tornado was ranked as
an F2. This puts the maximum wind speed in an estimated range from
113 to 157 miles per hour.
Tornado watch #29 which included Tuscaloosa County was issued
at 3:12 pm valid until 10:00 p.m. A Severe Thunderstorm Warning
was issued at 4:23 pm valid until 5:15 pm. The Severe Thunderstorm
Warning was upgraded to a Tornado Warning with the initial reports
of the tornado at 5:11 pm valid until 6:00 pm.
There was one fatality, a man in a vehicle in the Woodland
Hills area, and ten injuries, 8 were treated and released, two were
hospitalized.
Times are based on a combination of police reports, EMA
reports, and Doppler radar images.
More Images
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Radar images, including reflectivity, storm relative motion, and precipitation.
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