F1 tornado, Red Level, Alabama, March 12, 2001

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

March 12, 2001

Touchdown

1:00 PM CST (19:00 UTC)

Path length

3.2 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

1

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Covington County

Touchdown point

31.400, -86.620

Lift-off point

31.400, -86.620

Record number

46

A tornado touched down along the leading edge of a bow echo in the Pigeon Creek area just north of Red Level. The tornado destroyed a manufactured home with three people inside. Two of the occupants were killed and one was injured. The tornado appeared to have first touched down where the home was located. The youngest victim was home sick from school and her grandmother was watching her. The girls father was working in a room that was attached to the home. When the winds hit, the home was pulled out of the ground and rolled across a road and was completely demolished. The room where the girls father was working was left standing. Another "Double Wide" manufactured home, just west of the one that was destroyed, was picked up in the air, blown across or through a clump of trees, and set down about 50 yards south of where it was tied down, in another clump of trees. When viewing the home from a distance it appeared to have been purposely placed in the trees, with little outside damage visible. However, when viewed form the inside, it looked as if an earthquake had hit it, with almost everything inside damaged. Both of these manufactured homes were fairly new. Both of the homes had the front tie downs pulled out of the ground and the anchors on the back of the homes snapped. The winds were estimated to be greater than 100 mph with the combination of the tornado and the intense downdraft from the "Bow Echo". The tornado appeared to remain along the leading edge of the "Bow Echo" for a little over three miles. Other homes suffered roof damage and numerous trees were blown down along the path of the tornado. The tornado dissipated just before entering Butler county just west of Boykin. All totaled throughout the county, twelve homes were destroyed, nineteen had major damage and five had minor damage. Eleven vehicles were also destroyed.

The deaths

2 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.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 16:55 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 live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.