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F3 tornado in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

Tornado April 8, 1998 · Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

F3
Rating
19.5 mi
Whole path
300 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$815K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Pickens County → Tuscaloosa County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F3 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F3 meant severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned; the scale paired it with winds of 158–206 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

This was the first of three tornadoes produced by one supercell thunderstorm moving across central Alabama. The tornado began at 7:01 pm CDT just south of Gordo in extreme eastern Pickens County and traveled east-northeast moving into Tuscaloosa County around 7:05 pm CDT. The tornado stayed mostly in rural areas crossing the swampy area of the Sipsey River and a number of small roads before crossing SR 21. It remained in rural areas crossing SR 171 and US 43. The tornado dissipated at Lake Tuscaloosa just south of where SR 69 crosses the lake.Emergency management reported that five single-family dwellings were destroyed along with major damage reported to one house and minor damage to 23 others. Eleven mobile homes were destroyed and three mobile homes were damaged. A couple from North Carolina camping at Lake Lurleen lost everything.

Began near Holman (33.3000, -87.8500).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5637199. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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