1988: F3 Tornado On This Date in Tuscaloosa

A tornado struck the southern part of Tuscaloosa early on Sunday morning, November 20, 1988, at 12:53 a.m., heavily damaging 15 homes and injuring seven people. The storm, produced by a strong cold front, caused 25 homes to sustain light to moderate damage and 50 others to suffer minor damage. Three individuals required hospitalization for injuries, including broken limbs, but no fatalities were reported.

The storm was rated an F3 by the NWS.

The tornado’s narrow path, roughly 15 houses wide and four deep, tore through a middle-class residential area, leaving stories of near-misses. One resident narrowly avoided injury when a wrong-number phone call prompted her to leave her bedroom moments before it was destroyed. Cleanup efforts were hampered by downed trees, with National Guard units called in to secure the neighborhood and assist residents.

The storm system associated with the tornado also brought heavy rainfall, with 2 day totals reaching 2.04 inches in Birmingham. There were also some reports of hail.

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