F1 tornado, White Plains to Edwardsville, Alabama, March 6, 2003

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 6, 2003

Touchdown

2:48 AM CST (08:48 UTC)

Path length

9.0 miles (14.5 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

Property damage

$200,000

Counties

Calhoun and Cleburne counties

Touchdown point

33.750, -85.680

Lift-off point

33.750, -85.580

Record number

711

Alabama's second tornado of 2003 touched down in the early morning hours of Thursday, March 6, and affected portions of eastern Calhoun and western Cleburne counties. No deaths and only three minor injuries were reported with this tornado. The tornado first touched down in the White Plains community of Calhoun County, just west of the intersection of SR-9 and Cottaquilla Road. Damage at this location was light and scattered consisting mainly of downed trees and damaged roofs. From there, the tornado traveled east-northeast across SR-9 and County Road 55, where it caused considerable damage to greenhouses at a nursery business as well as chicken houses and other farm structures.The tornado then moved through open country for about a mile and a half continuing to uproot trees before destroying a mobile home on Chinch Creek Road. From there, the tornado moved eastward into a wooded area of Cleburne County, across Rattlesnake Mountain, causing sporadic tree damage until it lifted about a half mile east of the Shoal Creek Picnic area.The tornado destroyed two homes and damaged 21 others according to EMA and Red Cross damage assessments. Alabama Power reported that 250 people were without power.The tornado was rated an F1, mainly based on the amount of damage done to a mobile home on Chinch Creek Road. The tornado path length was about 8.9 miles. The average damage path width directly associated with the tornado was 100-200 yards, although peripheral damage occurred up to a half mile south of center of the tornado path.Begin: 33 45.200/ 85 41.468 End: 33 46.290/85 32.700

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:50 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 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.

Anniston (ANB), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:46 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 2003 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

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.