Photographs of the wrath of
an F-4 tornado, taken November 16, 1989 by the NWS Birmingham
Storm Survey team. At left, portions of the Waterford Square
Apartment complex were completely destroyed. At right, an aerial
photograph of the damage: for reference, the road going diagonally
from lower right to top middle is Airport Road. (Click for a
larger image) More pictures are available from the Birmingham
storm survey link below. |
Around 4:30 pm on Wednesday,
November 15, 1989, a tornado touched down near Madkin Mountain
on Redstone Arsenal, southwest of Huntsville. The tornado
moved northeast towards the heavily-populated Airport Road
area, where it would destroy or damage 80 businesses, 3 churches,
a dozen apartment buildings, and more than 1,000 cars. It
moved on, climbing over Garth Mountain, demolishing Jones
Valley Elementary School, and destroying 259 homes in the
Jones Valley area. The tornado then moved out into eastern
Madison County, where it damaged the equipment and maintenance
headquarters of Commission District 2 as well as a state forestry
office, destroyed 3 more homes, a volunteer fire department,
several barns and sheds, and numerous electrical towers.
All told, the tornado killed 21 people and injured 463. Rated
an F4 on the Fujita Scale, it inflicted more approximately
$250 million in damage.
Storm
Survey and Assessment (from NWS Birmingham) -
A team of meteorologists from across the NWS Southern Region
came together to survey the damage after the 1989 tornado.
This document examines the meteorological causes, includes
interviews and text products, as well as damage photos.
1989
Huntsville Tornado Poster (1.1 megabyte PPT file)
- A poster showing photographs of damage and accounts of the
storm is available for download.
"Tornadogenesis
via Squall Line and Supercell Interaction: The November 15,
1989, Huntsville, Alabama, Tornado" by Steven Goodman
and Kevin Knupp - Meteorologists with NASA/Marshall
Space Flight Center and the University of Alabama in Huntsville
wrote this technical research paper discussing how the F-4
tornado formed.
NWS
Huntsville Tornado Database Entry - See a map
of the tornado's track and other statistics.
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