F1 tornado, Hamilton to Bear Creek, Alabama, April 7, 2006

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

April 7, 2006

Touchdown

8:55 PM CDT (01:55 UTC)

Path length

9.4 miles (15.1 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Marion County

Touchdown point

34.130, -88.080

Lift-off point

34.220, -87.880

Record number

326

The tornado touched down in far eastern Marion County just north of State Highway 129. It then tracked northeastward into Winston County and lifted just southeast of the Needmore Community. The tornado produced significant damage in Haleyville, where the Windwood Hotel suffered major roof damage, a local gas station sustained major roof damage, and an old textile mill also was heavily damaged. A large tree fell on a home near the intersection of State Highway 13 and State Highway 129 and damaged a carport and automobile. The Haleyville High School received damage to sections of the roof, the baseball dugouts were damaged, and the top floor of the press box was destroyed. Numerous trees and power lines were downed along the path. The total damage path was 4.7 miles.

The tornado touched down just north of the intersection of US Highway 78 and State Highway 74. It then moved northeastward and dissipated just east of the intersection of County Road 41 and County Road 473. Numerous trees were either snapped off aloft or were blown down. Multiple telephone poles were blown down. The top of a barn was completely torn off. Several homes received roof damage, ranging from missing shingles to portions of roofs being lifted off. One automobile was totally destroyed due to fallen trees. One woman was killed (indirect) when she drove into an already downed tree along State Highway 187. One person suffered minor injuries (indirect) due to a fallen tree. New Hope Church had its porch destroyed and suffered minor damage to other portions of the building.

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

35 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:20 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:30 UTC and running to 06:46 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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.

Muscle Shoals Regional (MSL), 72 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:54 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 2006 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

46 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.