F2 tornado, Piedmont to Borden Spgs, Alabama, April 2, 2000

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F2

Date

April 2, 2000

Touchdown

12:34 AM CDT (05:34 UTC)

Path length

1.9 miles (3.1 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

6

Property damage

$300,000

Counties

Cleburne and Calhoun counties

Touchdown point

33.900, -85.550

Lift-off point

33.900, -85.520

Record number

740

The tornado began at 12:34 am just south of Vigo at the end of Helen Drive. Vigo is located east of Piedmont, AL. The tornado traveled on a northeast track crossing Bethel Church Road and continuing along Vigo Road (County Road 70). The tornado straddled the road moving up a hill and crossing a few hundred feet into Cleburne County. Damage in Cleburne County was confined to downed trees.The tornado path was 1.9 miles long and approximately 100 yards wide.Most of the property that was damaged or destroyed was located in the area of Helen Drive and Bethel Church Road. Six mobile homes were destroyed along with two houses, one of which was under construction. One elderly woman was killed and six people were injured in that area. The woman was one of three people in a mobile home whose frame was thrown approximately 130 feet by the force of the tornado. Beginning: 33 54.855/85 33.720 End: 33 55.293/85 31.752

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

16 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:18 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:45 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:50 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:35 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.