F1 tornado, Courtland to Athens, 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 mphthis tornado

   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 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

F1

Date

December 16, 2000

Touchdown

12:25 PM CST (18:25 UTC)

Path length

5.1 miles (8.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

Counties

Lawrence and Limestone counties

Touchdown point

34.720, -87.230

Lift-off point

34.750, -87.170

Record number

580

The tornado first touched down in Lawrence County northeast of Courtland in open farm land. It traveled northeast into Limestone County crossing the Tennessee river and causing damage about 2.9 miles south of Coxey in southwest Limestone County. The tornado travelled approximately a half mile on land in Limestone County before dissipating rapidly. One house lost a portion of a roof, two other homes sustained damage from falling trees, several boat houses and out-buildings were destroyed, and numerous large trees were downed. The survey team could find no damage in Lawrence County, however, two people photographed the tornado, one on the east side of Courtland looking northeast and one at Poplar Point in Limestone County looking northwest as it came ashore on the Limestone County side of the river.Beginning: 34 42.569/87 13.850 Ending: 34 45.874/87 10.228

A second tornado began 5.1 miles west-northwest of Athens just south of O'Neal. The tornado travelled in a northeasterly direction crossing SR 99 where several houses were damaged heavily. Continuing northeast the tornado crossed CR 63 and damaged several houses and destroyed three mobile homes just south of Cross Key. The tornado then crossed CR 26 and SR 127 before dissipating about 5.0 miles north of Athens. The tornado was rated an F2 with no known injuries reported. The total tornado path was 4.8 miles long and about 60 yards wide. The tornado began at 12:38 PM and dissipated at 12:44 PM. Beginning: 34 50.326/87 03.032 Ending: 34 52.552/86 58.748

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:20 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:45 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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 17:53 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), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:23 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.