Chatom, AL Natural Disasters and Weather Extremes
Hot Rankings
The chance of earthquake damage in Chatom is about the same as Alabama average and is much lower than the national average. The risk of tornado damage in Chatom is much lower than Alabama average and is about the same as the national average.
Earthquake Index, #474
| Chatom, AL | 0.03 |
| Alabama | 0.08 |
| U.S. | 1.81 |
The earthquake index value is calculated based on historical earthquake events data using USA.com algorithms. It is an indicator of the earthquake level in a region. A higher earthquake index value means a higher chance of an earthquake.
Volcano Index, #1
| Chatom, AL | 0.0000 |
| Alabama | 0.0000 |
| U.S. | 0.0023 |
The volcano index value is calculated based on the currently known volcanoes using USA.com algorithms. It is an indicator of the possibility of a region being affected by a possible volcano eruption. A higher volcano index value means a higher chance of being affected.
Tornado Index, #676
| Chatom, AL | 128.17 |
| Alabama | 255.80 |
| U.S. | 136.45 |
The tornado index value is calculated based on historical tornado events data using USA.com algorithms. It is an indicator of the tornado level in a region. A higher tornado index value means a higher chance of tornado events.
Other Weather Extremes Events
A total of 1,796 other weather extremes events within 50 miles of Chatom, AL were recorded from 1950 to 2010. The following is a break down of these events:
| Type | Count | Type | Count | Type | Count | Type | Count | Type | Count |
| Avalanche: | 0 | Blizzard: | 0 | Cold: | 11 | Dense Fog: | 0 | Drought: | 30 |
| Dust Storm: | 0 | Flood: | 163 | Hail: | 591 | Heat: | 20 | Heavy Snow: | 7 |
| High Surf: | 0 | Hurricane: | 3 | Ice Storm: | 5 | Landslide: | 0 | Strong Wind: | 18 |
| Thunderstorm Winds: | 864 | Tropical Storm: | 3 | Wildfire: | 0 | Winter Storm: | 17 | Winter Weather: | 15 |
| Other: | 49 | ||||||||
Volcanos Nearby
No volcano is found in or near Chatom, AL.
Historical Earthquake Events
A total of 2 historical earthquake events that had recorded magnitudes of 3.5 or above found in or near Chatom, AL.
| Distance (miles) | Date | Magnitude | Depth (km) | Latitude | Longitude |
| 36.7 | 1977-05-04 | 3.6 | 5 | 31.98 | -88.42 |
| 35.9 | 1978-12-11 | 3.5 | 5 | 31.95 | -88.48 |
Historical Tornado Events
A total of 54 historical tornado events that had recorded magnitude of 2 or above found in or near Chatom, AL.
| Distance (miles) | Date | Magnitude | Start Lat/Log | End Lat/Log | Length | Width | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage | Crop Damage | Affected County |
| 0.3 | 1970-03-03 | 2 | 31°28'N / 88°15'W | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Washington | |||
| 6.3 | 1971-09-16 | 2 | 31°22'N / 88°15'W | 31°24'N / 88°10'W | 5.70 Miles | 200 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Washington |
| 8.7 | 1988-11-04 | 2 | 31°38'N / 88°19'W | 31°32'N / 88°03'W | 12.00 Miles | 200 Yards | 0 | 0 | 0K | 0 | Washington |
| 12.0 | 1984-03-24 | 2 | 31°31'N / 88°03'W | 2.00 Miles | 80 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Washington | |
| 13.5 | 1972-03-02 | 2 | 31°26'N / 88°03'W | 31°32'N / 87°59'W | 8.00 Miles | 33 Yards | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Washington |
| 13.8 | 1976-03-16 | 2 | 31°20'N / 88°25'W | 0.10 Mile | 50 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Washington | |
| 18.3 | 1953-01-23 | 3 | 31°32'N / 88°00'W | 31°34'N / 87°54'W | 6.50 Miles | 300 Yards | 0 | 1 | 25K | 0 | Clarke |
| 19.3 | 1988-11-04 | 3 | 31°37'N / 88°36'W | 31°37'N / 88°27'W | 8.00 Miles | 200 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Wayne |
| 20.3 | 1984-03-24 | 3 | 31°31'N / 87°56'W | 31°32'N / 87°53'W | 4.00 Miles | 60 Yards | 0 | 0 | 2.5M | 0 | Jackson |
| 24.0 | 1958-02-26 | 3 | 31°26'N / 88°46'W | 31°36'N / 88°32'W | 17.90 Miles | 100 Yards | 2 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Wayne |
| 25.7 | 1957-06-28 | 2 | 31°35'N / 88°41'W | 31°42'N / 88°35'W | 10.00 Miles | 50 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Wayne |
| 28.0 | 1983-05-19 | 2 | 31°37'N / 88°01'W | 31°45'N / 87°40'W | 22.00 Miles | 100 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Clarke |
| 29.0 | 1983-03-20 | 3 | 31°09'N / 88°34'W | 1.00 Mile | 200 Yards | 0 | 0 | 2.5M | 0 | Greene | |
| 29.3 | 1977-02-23 | 2 | 31°09'N / 88°42'W | 31°10'N / 88°28'W | 13.90 Miles | 50 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Greene |
| 29.5 | 1958-02-26 | 2 | 31°47'N / 88°27'W | 32°00'N / 88°12'W | 20.90 Miles | 67 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Choctaw |
| 30.1 | 1979-11-25 | 2 | 31°37'N / 88°01'W | 32°00'N / 87°50'W | 28.60 Miles | 300 Yards | 0 | 2 | 250K | 0 | Clarke |
| 33.5 | 1958-02-26 | 3 | 31°22'N / 88°51'W | 31°26'N / 88°46'W | 7.10 Miles | 100 Yards | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Greene |
| 33.6 | 1996-02-19 | 2 | 31°21'N / 88°51'W | 31°26'N / 88°46'W | 5.00 Miles | 400 Yards | 0 | 4 | 150K | 0 | Greene |
| Brief Description: NUMEROUS TREES WERE TOPPLED AND SEVERAL MOBILE HOMES WERE DAMAGED BY A TORNADO THAT FIRST TOUCHED DOWN IN THE NORTHWEST PART OF GREENE COUNTY. THE TORNADO FIRST TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT SIX MILES EAST OF RICHTON ON MS HWY 42 AT ABOUT 220 PM CDT. THE TORNADO THEN SKIPPED ALONG THE GROUND TO THE NORTHEAST AND MOVED INTO WAYNE COUNTY ALONG MS HWY 63. NUMEROUS TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN ALONG THE PATH OF THE TORNADO AND SEVERAL MOBILE HOMES WERE DAMAGED. FOUR PEOPLE IN ONE OF THE MOBILE HOMES WERE INJURED. THE TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND FOR ABOUT 5 MILES IN GREENE COUNTY. | |||||||||||
| 33.6 | 1963-01-19 | 2 | 31°43'N / 87°47'W | 31°45'N / 87°45'W | 3.30 Miles | 33 Yards | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Clarke |
| 34.0 | 1971-02-26 | 2 | 31°10'N / 88°42'W | 0 | 0 | 0K | 0 | Greene | |||
| 34.8 | 1971-02-12 | 2 | 31°00'N / 88°33'W | 31°03'N / 88°30'W | 4.70 Miles | 33 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Greene |
| 34.8 | 1956-07-08 | 2 | 31°37'N / 87°54'W | 31°26'N / 87°25'W | 31.10 Miles | 33 Yards | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Clarke |
| 38.0 | 1958-02-26 | 3 | 31°20'N / 88°54'W | 31°22'N / 88°51'W | 4.10 Miles | 100 Yards | 2 | 20 | 250K | 0 | Perry |
| 38.6 | 1976-03-27 | 3 | 30°58'N / 88°40'W | 30°59'N / 88°26'W | 13.90 Miles | 300 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | George |
| 39.0 | 1971-02-12 | 2 | 30°57'N / 88°35'W | 31°00'N / 88°33'W | 4.30 Miles | 33 Yards | 0 | 1 | 25K | 0 | George |
| 39.1 | 1968-11-17 | 2 | 31°58'N / 88°22'W | 32°06'N / 88°15'W | 11.50 Miles | 33 Yards | 0 | 2 | 25K | 0 | Choctaw |
| 39.7 | 1973-05-27 | 2 | 31°58'N / 88°35'W | 3.00 Miles | 440 Yards | 0 | 1 | 25K | 0 | Clarke | |
| 40.3 | 1960-06-15 | 2 | 31°37'N / 87°35'W | 0 | 0 | 0K | 0 | Clarke | |||
| 41.0 | 2008-03-03 | 2 | 31°51'N / 88°46'W | 31°57'N / 88°41'W | 8.00 Miles | 350 Yards | 0 | 0 | 400K | 500K | Clarke |
| Brief Description: EVENT NARRATIVE: This tornado started in a rural area and downed trees and limbs along its path until causing its most intense damage at it crossed County Road 250. Here, it moved a large two story frame house several feet off its foundation, along with blowing out numerous windows and causing roof damage. Additionally, many dozens of large trees were snapped and uprooted in the vicinity. The tornado continued to move north northeast, causing extensive tree damage with hundreds of trees snapped or uprooted. Very near the end point, just east southeast of the DeSoto Community, roof damage occurred to two homes. Maximum wind speed was 115 mph. EPISODE NARRATIVE: A strong upper level system and evolving surface low moved across the region late on March 3rd. These features combined to bring a potent weather system to the area and a healthy round of severe thunderstorms from late afternoon through around midnight. It was a line of thunderstorms which brought most of the severe weather, but a few supercells did occur just ahead of the line. Ten tornadoes occurred, two of which were strong (EF-2), along with a good deal of wind damage as the line pushed east across Mississippi. | |||||||||||
| 41.1 | 1971-03-02 | 3 | 31°54'N / 87°49'W | 31°55'N / 87°44'W | 4.90 Miles | 100 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Clarke |
| 42.5 | 1972-01-09 | 3 | 31°46'N / 88°57'W | 31°48'N / 88°47'W | 10.10 Miles | 300 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Wayne |
| 42.7 | 1966-11-10 | 2 | 31°00'N / 87°48'W | 31°03'N / 87°41'W | 7.70 Miles | 33 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Baldwin |
| 44.0 | 1980-05-19 | 3 | 30°54'N / 88°39'W | 30°57'N / 88°37'W | 4.30 Miles | 150 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | George |
| 44.1 | 1967-05-02 | 2 | 30°54'N / 88°35'W | 0 | 0 | 0K | 0 | George | |||
| 44.4 | 1969-05-08 | 2 | 32°02'N / 88°38'W | 32°05'N / 88°28'W | 10.40 Miles | 100 Yards | 0 | 0 | 0K | 0 | Clarke |
| 44.5 | 1973-04-07 | 2 | 30°54'N / 88°36'W | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | George | |||
| 44.5 | 1971-12-20 | 3 | 31°18'N / 87°31'W | 1.00 Mile | 100 Yards | 0 | 1 | 250K | 0 | Monroe | |
| 44.7 | 1957-11-18 | 3 | 31°58'N / 88°47'W | 32°00'N / 88°38'W | 9.00 Miles | 77 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Clarke |
| 44.9 | 1987-02-28 | 4 | 31°47'N / 88°54'W | 31°51'N / 88°53'W | 4.00 Miles | 1230 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25.0M | 0 | Wayne |
| 45.3 | 1968-11-03 | 3 | 30°54'N / 87°59'W | 30°53'N / 87°47'W | 11.90 Miles | 400 Yards | 0 | 4 | 250K | 0 | Baldwin |
| 45.4 | 1968-11-03 | 3 | 30°46'N / 88°07'W | 30°54'N / 87°59'W | 12.20 Miles | 400 Yards | 0 | 14 | 250K | 0 | Mobile |
| 45.7 | 1987-02-28 | 4 | 31°52'N / 88°54'W | 31°51'N / 88°51'W | 5.00 Miles | 1230 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25.0M | 0 | Clarke |
| 46.3 | 1977-06-16 | 2 | 30°49'N / 88°04'W | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Mobile | |||
| 46.3 | 1997-11-21 | 3 | 30°49'N / 88°04'W | 30°49'N / 88°04'W | 1.00 Mile | 300 Yards | 0 | 0 | 2.0M | 0 | Mobile |
| Brief Description: An F3 tornado touched down just east of I-65 in Saraland near Shelton Beach Estates. The tornado skipped east northeast along the ground before lifting back into the cloud near U S Highway 43. Three homes were almost completely gone, three more suffered major damage and about sixty homes in the middle-class neighbourhood suffered some damage. Most of the damage was consistent with an F1 or F2 tornado. No one was injured. Several people knew they were under a tornado warning and were able to take cover before the storm struck. Most of the residents said they did not hear the familiar "Freight Train Sound" before the tornado struck. | |||||||||||
| 46.6 | 2006-11-15 | 3 | 31°37'N / 89°04'W | 31°41'N / 88°57'W | 11.00 Miles | 850 Yards | 0 | 1 | 1.7M | 0K | Jones |
| Brief Description: EVENT NARRATIVE: This strong tornado touched down near the Glade and Tuckers Crossing Communities and tracked east northeast to near the Mill Creek Community before entering Wayne County near Highway 84. Around 25 homes suffered significant damage. The most intense damage was along a path from near the intersection of Highway 15 and Orange Drive northeast to the area along Township Road. Two metal high tension electric power truss towers were destroyed, hundreds of trees were snapped and uprooted, at least two mobile homes were destroyed, a travel trailer being used for post-Katrina housing was annihilated, and several houses suffered significant structural damage. Northeast of this area, the path continued all the way to the county line with Wayne County, but damage was generally less, F0 to occasionally F1, and limited to tree damage. The one exception was near the Mill Creek community, where a storage building was destroyed and a couple of homes suffered roof damage. Total path length across Jones and Wayne Counties was 17 miles. EPISODE NARRATIVE: An intense fall cyclone developed over the region and produced an episode of severe weather which included tornadoes. This strong weather system developed as a very strong jet stream, with winds between 160-200 mph, slammed into Oregon and Washington State. All that energy moved over the Rocky Mountains and caused a strong area of surface low pressure to develop. This low intensified as it moved east across the Red River Valley and then lifted across Arkansas and into Tennessee as it deepened to 990 mb! The strength of this deepening low caused warm and unstable air to lift northward across Louisiana and into central Mississippi. It was this northward moving warm front that became the focus of an area where tornadic supercell thunderstorms could thrive in an unstable and highly sheared environment. This large and powerful storm system produced numerous tornadoes across the south and south eastern United States where many were of the strong (F2 or F3) variety. Within the Jackson, MS forecast area, there were a total of 5 tornadoes to impact the counties serviced. Two F3s, one in Lamar County and the other in Jones County. The Jones County tornado actually contained a satellite tornado, F1, which briefly rotated around the parent tornado. Next was an F1 tornado in southern Marion County which was actually the end of a strong tornado that moved out of Walthall County. Lastly, a brief F1 tornado occurred in central Lamar County. Tornadoes were not the only type of severe weather, scattered wind damage also occurred across northeast Louisiana and portions of central Mississippi between midnight and 10 am Wednesday November 15th 2006. | |||||||||||
| 47.1 | 1973-05-27 | 2 | 32°04'N / 88°38'W | 0 | 1 | 25K | 0 | Clarke | |||
| 47.7 | 1971-02-12 | 2 | 30°44'N / 88°47'W | 30°59'N / 88°28'W | 25.50 Miles | 33 Yards | 0 | 2 | 250K | 0 | George |
| 48.6 | 1968-11-03 | 3 | 30°53'N / 87°47'W | 31°00'N / 87°37'W | 12.80 Miles | 400 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Baldwin |
| 48.8 | 1980-04-13 | 2 | 30°53'N / 87°47'W | 0.10 Mile | 50 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Baldwin | |
| 48.8 | 1981-02-10 | 2 | 30°53'N / 87°47'W | 1.50 Miles | 150 Yards | 0 | 62 | 2.5M | 0 | Baldwin | |
| 49.2 | 1974-11-05 | 2 | 31°13'N / 87°28'W | 0 | 0 | 3K | 0 | Escambia | |||
| 49.4 | 1950-04-18 | 3 | 30°40'N / 88°12'W | 30°51'N / 88°06'W | 14.00 Miles | 100 Yards | 0 | 15 | 25K | 0 | Mobile |
| 49.5 | 1973-05-27 | 3 | 31°32'N / 89°08'W | 31°43'N / 89°00'W | 15.00 Miles | 400 Yards | 1 | 35 | 2.5M | 0 | Jones |
| 49.9 | 1967-12-02 | 2 | 31°26'N / 87°24'W | 1.00 Mile | 300 Yards | 0 | 0 | 250K | 0 | Monroe | |
* The information on this page is based on the global volcano database, the U.S. earthquake database of 1638-1985, and the U.S. Tornado and Weather Extremes database of 1950-2010.