F0 tornado, Autaugaville, Alabama, November 28, 2005

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   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 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

F0

Date

November 28, 2005

Touchdown

6:41 PM CST (00:41 UTC)

Path length

5.4 miles (8.7 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Autauga County

Touchdown point

32.430, -86.720

Lift-off point

32.470, -86.630

Record number

518

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed the damage that affected the Whitewater Community and areas near Autaugaville. It has been determined that the damage was the result of a tornado. The tornado has been rated an F0 on the Fujita Damage Intensity Scale. The tornado first touched down approximately 3.2 miles west of Autaugaville near the intersection of County Road 45 and County Road 78. The tornado tracked in a northeastward direction and crossed State Highway 14, County Road 19, and County Road 165. The tornado lifted just east of the Whitewater Community, north of County Road 165. The tornado damage path was approximately 5.4 miles long and 150 yards wide at its widest point. The tornado was on the ground from approximately 641 PM CST to 651 PM CST. Along the damage path, numerous large trees were snapped off and uprooted. A garage attached to a mobile home was blown away. At another location, vinyl siding was blown off a house and a fence was blown down. One shed was totally destroyed. Some tin was peeled off a steel building.Begin: 32.4378/86.7092 End: 32.4700/86.6244

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 00:36 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:10 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:40 UTC and running to 03:17 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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 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.

Maxwell Afb/Montgom (MXF), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:41 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.