F2 tornado, Centre, Alabama, November 10, 2002

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

November 10, 2002

Touchdown

11:20 PM CST (05:20 UTC)

Path length

10.5 miles (16.9 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

4

Property damage

$1.2 million

County

Cherokee County

Touchdown point

34.120, -85.630

Lift-off point

34.150, -85.470

Record number

390

The Centre Tornado touched down near Highway 411, just to the east of the Cherokee Country Club. It then traveled northeast, crossed over Cowan Creek, and damaged houses along County Road 40 at approximately 1122 pm CST. The tornado continued its northeastward movement and crossed over County Road 16 at approximately 1125 pm CST. One death was reported in a mobile home at the point where the tornado crossed over County Road 16. From this point, the tornado crossed County Road 31, damaging more homes before moving over Spring Creek. The tornado turned more to the east-northeast, damaging even more homes, before finally lifting near the eastern end of Weiss Lake near Mud Creek.The Cherokee County Emergency Management Agency estimates that 88 homes were either damaged or destroyed as this tornado moved across the county. In addition to the one fatality, there were also 4 injuries reported.The tornado was on the ground from 1120 pm CST to approximately 1132 pm CST. It had a path 10.5 miles long, and at its widest point was 440 yards wide.Beg: 34 07.176/85 38.020 End: 34 10.010/85 27.928

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.

10 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:10 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:00 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, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:23 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), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:23 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 2002 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

63 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 64 of them

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.