A TORNADO PRODUCING SUPERCELL 18 May 1995

On May 18, 1995, a supercell thunderstorm developed over northern Mississippi and moved east northeast and across the Tennessee Valley region of North Alabama. In addition to widespread wind damage and large hail, this storm produced two tornado tracks in Alabama. The first was a 6.5 mile track rated F1 that began about 2 miles east of the Muscle Shoals airport. The second was a violent tornado that began 3 miles northwest of Athens in Limestone County and moved on a path just slightly north of east completely across Madison County before ending in northwestern Jackson County about 15 miles northwest of Scottsboro. The tornado path varied from very narrow at the beginning and end to about three-quarters of a mile wide at the widest location in Madison County. Intensity varied from F0 near both ends of the track to F4 at the strongest in several locations in Madison County. Damage along the track was primarily in the F2 and F3 category. Evidence in the damage as seen through an aerial survey indicated that the tornado was probably a multiple vortex with indications of at least two vortices within the main tornado funnel.

The tornado began at 4:33 pm CST in Limestone County crossing Interstate 65 and Highway 251 where the mobile home park was destroyed. It reached the Limestone/Madison county line at 4:50 pm cst. The trek across Madison County saw the tornado move near the communities of Harvest, Meridianville, Buckhorn, and Fannings Crossing before moving into the rugged terrain of eastern Madison County. The tornado crossed the Madison/Jackson county line at 5:21 pm cst. The tornado track was much weaker in Jackson County as it moved through rugged terrain affecting very few structures. The track ended about 15 miles northwest of Scottsboro or a few miles west of the community of Hytop.

Damage was the heaviest at a mobile home park about 3 miles northeast of Athens along Highway 251. The only fatality that occurred in this tornado occurred at this mobile home park, and the person died later from injuries received in the tornado. Twenty-six mobile homes were destroyed in Limestone County, 13 in the Oakdale Mobile Home Park. Another 35 buildings were damaged or destroyed in Limestone County where damage was estimated to be $1.5 million. About 9,500 electric customers were without electricity. A cow was also killed when a large tree fell on and crushed it.

Another especially hard hit area was Anderson Hills subdivision in Madison County with houses ranging in price from $175,000 to $400,000. This area of well-constructed dwellings was one of the locations where F4 damage was evident as well as indications of a multiple vortex structure. In Anderson Hills, 21 houses were destroyed and 39 sustained major damage. Damage across the rest of Madison County was less concentrated than in this one subdivision. More than 10,000 Huntsville Utility Company customers were without power.

The two images shown below were from the Columbus MS AFB WSR-88D. At the time of these images, the thunderstorm was in Mississippi just west of the Alabama border. Both were at an elevation angle of 0.5 degrees, and the storm was about 45 nm from the radar. This represents a slice through the storm at an altitude of about 4500 feet (msl). The first is the base reflectivity, and the second is storm relative velocity. The images show a well-defined hook echo and the velocity shows a tornado vortex signature (TVS) indicated by the red arrow. In the velocity image, the green represents movement toward the radar, and the red away from the radar. The blue arrow shows the direction to the radar. The entire thunderstorm can be seen rotating, but if you look closer, the TVS can be seen near the end of the hook shaped echo. This TVS was the beginning of the tornadic circulation that later produced the tornadoes in Alabama. The violent tornado that began near Athens occurred more than one hour later.

BASE REFLECTIVITY

STORM RELATIVE VELOCITY

Detailed storm damage information was obtained from Alabama Storm Data for May 1995. The WSR-88D images were printed from the Principal User Processor (PUP), then scanned into digital form. Although there is some loss of resolution and color depth, both images appear reasonably close to the image as seen on the PUP display. Some colors in the velocity image were altered slightly to make them more closely resemble the original.

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