F3 tornado, Gadsden to Centre, Alabama, December 16, 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 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

F3

Date

December 16, 2000

Touchdown

2:46 PM CST (20:46 UTC)

Path length

12.8 miles (20.6 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

14

Property damage

$10 million

Counties

Etowah and Cherokee counties

Touchdown point

34.050, -85.930

Lift-off point

34.120, -85.730

Record number

581

Damage in Etowah and Cherokee counties was the result of an F3 tornado. The tornado track was 12.8 miles long and just over one quarter of a mile or about 500 yards wide at its widest point. The tornado touched down near Tidmore Bend, 5.3 miles east north east of the city of Gadsden, at 246 PM and lifted at 305 PM near Pollard Bend in Cherokee County. The tornado track was 8.1 miles in Etowah County and 4.7 miles in Cherokee County for a total of 12.8 miles.The most significant damage with the tornado was in the Coats Bend Community of Etowah County where 14 injuries occurred and approximately 250 homes were either totally destroyed or had major damage. Damage in Cherokee County was limited to downed trees and damage to a couple of structures. Beginning: 34 02.864/85 55.347 Ending: 34 06.877/85 42.900

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

26 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:20 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:14 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 radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:48 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

23 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.