Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2006
F0 tornado, Hanceville, Alabama, March 13, 2006
This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Cullman County on March 13, 2006, touching down at 6:47 PM CST and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- F0
- Date
- March 13, 2006
- Touchdown
- 6:47 PM CST (00:47 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Cullman County
- Touchdown point
- 33.970, -86.820
- Lift-off point
- 33.970, -86.820
- Record number
- 158
What the Weather Service recorded
A strong cold front tracked east from the Great Lakes south through the lower Mississippi Valley into a moist and unstable airmass that presented strong vertical wind shear. Several broken bands of thunderstorms developed, some of which were supercells producing long tracks of severe weather.
The initial touchdown was along county road 501, about 13 miles south-southwest of Cullman, just east of interstate 65. The tornado knocked down a few trees with maximum estimated wind speeds at 70 miles an hour.
A tornado once again descended briefly along county road 504, about 11 miles south-southwest of Cullman, knocking down additional trees.
Another brief tornado touchdown occurred, knocking down additional trees along the north end of county road 506, about 9 miles south-southeast of Cullman.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:49 UTC and running to 02:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:53 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Lake Wind Advisory | HUN |
| 16:53 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Lake Wind Advisory | HUN |
| 19:49 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | HUN |
| 23:38 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | HUN |
| 23:44 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | HUN |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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 air that afternoon
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, AL (KBMX), 00:00Z
0.8 hours before the tornado, 88 km from the path. March 14, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 183 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -26 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 183 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1360 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 65 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 114 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 193 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 0.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.9 K/km
Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 12:00Z
11.2 hours after it, 88 km from the path. March 14, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -14389 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1662 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 72 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -203 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 28 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.0 K/km
The surface observations
Cullman/Folsom_field_arpt (3A1), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:00 UTC | 71.6 | 51.8 | 200° 12 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 23:20 UTC | 69.8 | 53.6 | 200° 9 kt | 12 | 1009.5 | -RA |
| 23:40 UTC | 68 | 53.6 | 210° 9 kt | 1009.5 | RA | |
| 00:02 UTC | 68 | 57.2 | 210° 10 kt | 1010.2 | -RA | |
| 00:20 UTC | 64.4 | 55.4 | 240° 6 kt | 15 | 1011.2 | -RA |
| 01:00 UTC | 62.6 | 59 | 190° 8 kt | 1010.8 | ||
| 02:00 UTC | 62.6 | 59 | 210° 4 kt | 1010.8 | ||
| 02:20 UTC | 62.6 | 59 | 220° 4 kt | 1010.5 | ||
| 02:40 UTC | 62.6 | 59 | 200° 6 kt | 1010.8 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:49 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:36 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Curry | Walker, AL | POSSIBLE TORNADO IN NORTHEASTERN WALKER COUNTY. TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN NEAR SMITH LAKE. |
| 23:36 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Curry | Walker, AL | POSSIBLE TORNADO IN NORTHEASTERN WLAKER COUNTY. TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN NEAR SMITH LAKE. |
| 23:39 UTC | TORNADO | 1 E Curry | Walker, AL | AN F1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST EAST OF THE CURRY COMMUNITY ALONG BURROWS CROSSING ROAD. THE TORNADO COMPLETELY DESTROYED ON BARN. ONE BARN WAS HEAVILY DAMAGED AND A FEW TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN. THE TORNADO DISSIPATED IN L |
| 23:56 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ne Arkadelphia | Cullman, AL | LOCATION ESTIMATED. |
| 00:14 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Nw Hayden | Blount, AL | POSSIBLE TORNADO NEAR INTERSTATE 65 AND COUNTY ROAD 5. DEBRIS FLYING. |
| 00:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Arkadelphia | Cullman, AL | A FEW TREES REPORTED DOWN NEAR ARKADELPHIA. |
| 00:25 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Nectar | Blount, AL | PENNY SIZE HAIL REPORTED IN NECTAR BY STORM SPOTTERS. |
| 00:35 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Nectar | Blount, AL | PENNY SIZE HAIL REPORTED IN NECTAR BY STORM SPOTTERS. |
| 00:43 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Nectar | Blount, AL | POSSIBLE TORNADO IN NECTAR. A SMALL BUILDING WAS DESTROYED. |
| 00:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Cleveland | Blount, AL | TREES BLOWN DOWN IN CLEVELAND. |
| 00:53 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Oneonta | Blount, AL | TREES BLOWN DOWN IN ONEONTA. |
| 01:16 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Fultondale | Jefferson, AL | FUNNEL CLOUD REPORTED IN FULTONDALE. |
| 02:09 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Moody | St. Clair, AL | PENNY SIZE HAIL WAS REPORTED IN MOODY. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of March 13, 2006
19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 13 | 12:00 AM CST | F3 | Montgomery, MO | 6.0 | 300 | 1 | $800,000 | |
| March 13 | 12:30 AM CST | F2 | Callaway, MO | 13.0 | 100 | 2 | ||
| March 13 | 1:20 AM CST | F3 | Montgomery, MO to IL | 44.5 | 300 | 6 | $2.7 million | |
| March 13 | 1:36 AM CST | F1 | Lincoln, MO | 0.2 | 75 | |||
| March 13 | 1:50 PM CST | F0 | Montgomery, MS | 1.5 | 50 | |||
| March 13 | 2:18 PM CST | F0 | Webster, MS | 1.0 | 30 | |||
| March 13 | 2:26 PM CST | F0 | Webster, MS | 1.0 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| March 13 | 3:15 PM CST | F0 | Clay, MS | 1.0 | 30 | |||
| March 13 | 4:04 PM CST | F0 | Lamar, AL | 0.1 | 25 | $10,000 | ||
| March 13 | 4:45 PM CST | F0 | Fayette, AL | 1.1 | 50 | $30,000 | ||
| March 13 | 4:55 PM CST | F1 | Fayette, AL | 1.6 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| March 13 | 5:15 PM CST | F0 | Lamar, AL | 2.6 | 75 | $20,000 | ||
| March 13 | 5:39 PM CST | F1 | Walker, AL | 1.3 | 25 | $30,000 | ||
| March 13 | 5:43 PM CST | F0 | Fayette, AL | 3.4 | 30 | $3,000 | ||
| March 13 | 5:54 PM CST | F0 | Tuscaloosa, AL | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| March 13 | 5:56 PM CST | F0 | Cullman, AL | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| March 13 | 6:15 PM CST | F0 | Blount, AL | 0.1 | 25 | $10,000 | ||
| March 13 | 6:45 PM CST | F0 | Cullman, AL | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| March 13 | 6:50 PM CST | F0 | Cullman, AL | 0.1 | 20 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.