F1 tornado, Gardendale to Roebuck Plaza, Alabama, April 8, 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 8, 2006

Touchdown

1:16 AM CDT (06:16 UTC)

Path length

2.3 miles (3.7 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$500,000

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

33.650, -86.820

Lift-off point

33.630, -86.780

Record number

338

The tornado touched down near the intersection of US Highway 31 and Main Street. It knocked a few trees down west of US Highway 31, then traveled southeastward and affected the business district along US Highway 31. A few dozen businesses were heavily damaged. The damage included significant roof damage, broken windows, large bay doors blown out, air conditioning unit damage and sign damage. Three vary large air conditioning units were blown off the roof of a K-Mart. These units were estimated at 5 to 8 thousand pounds each. A church along US Highway 31 suffered roof damage. Dozens of homes were damaged and numerous trees were blown down east of US Highway 31 in the vicinity of Tarrant Road and Peterson Road. One woman was injured when a tree fell through the roof of her home. South of Tarrant Road, the tornado mainly produced tree damage. The tornado lifted near Lumen Park and Taihaiti Lane.

The tornado touched down in Roebuck Municipal Golf Club at Donna Hawkins Park, west of Interstate 59. It generally tracked eastward, crossed the interstate and affected Roebuck. The tornado dissipated near Roebuck Plaza and US Highway 11. Hundreds of large hardwood trees were either blown over or uprooted. Numerous pine trees were also snapped off along the path. Several of the fallen trees landed on homes and produced substantial damage. An estimated 50 to 100 homes suffered varying degrees of damage.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:58 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:30 UTC and running to 08:13 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:58 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.

Birmingham Municipal (BHM), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:13 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

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.