Stats
Path length: 14 miles
Width: 703 yards
Fatalities: 6
Injuries: 130
Rating: F3
County: Cullman, Marshall
Tornado Path
Click Map To Enlarge
SPC coordinates: Start: 34.25 / -86.58 End: 34.27/ -86.32
When you plot the lat/lon from the SPC and compare with the official summary, it would seem the coordinates are off. I have plotted the official SPC coordinates and also the highlighted some of the communities mentioned in the summary. It would seem the official plot is too far south. Joppa was hit as well as the south side of Arab. The tornado dissipated near Guntersville Lake just north of the Diamond community. This is all north of the official SPC path.
Note: Exact tornado path may not be straight and/or continuous.
Summary
Three tornadoes were confirmed on February 16, 1995, all in Alabama. The strongest was a devastating F3 that tracked 14 miles through parts of Cullman and Marshall Counties.
This tornado began about 3 miles west of Joppa just before 5 am CT. It traveled ENE through the town, across Alabama Highway 69, and into Marshall County, just SW of Arab. The tornado moved across the south side of Arab. It moved into the rugged terrain east of this area and dissipated at the Browns Creek Section of Guntersville Lake just north of the Diamond Community.
77 dwellings and 6 businesses were destroyed in Cullman County. The Joppa Elementary School was destroyed. 80 dwellings and 6 businesses were destroyed in Marshall County.
There were 130 injuries reported in this event and 6 fatalities. One death occurred in a home and the rest in mobile homes. Four of the deaths were in Arab and one in Joppa. A pregnant woman was severely injured in her mobile home and was sent into labor early. The baby died at birth.
In the rubble of a trailer park, a baby was found unharmed.
Videos
Newspaper Clippings
Discrepancies:
We gathered information for this event from the SPC & NCDC Databases, the February 1995 Storm Data Narrative and Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes Update and found the following differences:
Max Width:
- The SPC has the max width as 703 yards.
- NCDC has the width at 10 yards.
- Grazulis lists the width at 700 yards.
Counties:
- The NCDC does not have an entry for Marshall County. It has the official lat/lon all in Cullman County.
- All other sources list Cullman and Marshall in the damage path and the official lat/lon goes through both counties.
Sources:
February 1995 Storm Data Publication
Mike Wilhelm’s Blog of the Event
Grazulis, Thomas P. (1993). Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project of Environmental Films. Page 1372.
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2 Comments
tylerflack23 · May 20, 2025 at 5:05 pm
Arab AL resident and wannabe weather researcher here. I come from the same 2023 AHS class as the girl from the Hallmark family who survived the 2011 Cullman-Arab EF4 tornado that went north of our town. I’ve been tracing and retracing tornado paths for a couple of months now, and if people are confused about the path of the 1995 tornado. You’re not wrong about that. I don’t know why the officials labeled the path of one of our town’s most prominent tornadoes so far south of where it actually went. There’s two places I should mention which should help readers understand the true track of this tornado.
The first location is where the old Joppa Elementary school was located which was destroyed by the tornado. Currently it’s an open field where it once stood surrounded by a parking lot behind a small two story old church building which seems to be used as something else these days. Fun fact there’s still an old baseball field immediately West of the old Joppa Elementary School site.
Here’s the rough coordinates:
34°17’51″N 86°33’31″W
The second location is a storage facility which was built on the site of the house where that 4 year old girl was killed by the tornado. This storage facility is located immediately south of Amberwood Apartments on South Main Street.
Here’s the rough coordinates:
34°18’23″N 86°29’48″W
There’s even a tornado scar you can still see to this day 30 years later looking east of Highway 231 around the intersection of City Park Dr // Union Hill Road, and US 231. It’s a gap in the tree line that has yet to fully grow back.
Jen Narramore · July 22, 2025 at 9:22 pm
Thank you so much for this information!