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F2 tornado in Montgomery County, Alabama

Tornado March 6, 1996 · Montgomery County, Alabama

F2
Rating
4.0 mi
Path length
200 yd
Path width
2
Deaths
17
Injuries
$1.5M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

The wider storm

The fourth in a series of four tornadoes across southern and eastern Montgomery cut a swath of destruction about 4 miles in length in an area just outside the city limits of Montgomery. The tornado began in an open field just south of a small housing development called Ranchette Estates. The tornado travelled on a path toward the northeast moving across the Country Estates Mobile Home Park where two men were killed and a number of others were injured. The tornado continued toward the northeast damaging the Georgia Washington Junior High School. It ended shortly after damaging a number of houses in the Bridlebrook Farms sub-division. About 40 homes were damaged in the Bridlebrook Farms area while nearly all of the mobile homes in Country Estates were damaged or destroyed.Total path length was about 4 miles with a path width of 200 yards.This tornado actually represents the fifth damaging event that occurred in Montgomery County between 5:12 am and about 5:30 am.

Began near Montgomery (32.3300, -86.1300).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5546532. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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