F2 tornado, Green Bay to Eoda, Alabama, November 15, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   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

F2

Date

November 15, 2006

Touchdown

11:30 AM CST (17:30 UTC)

Path length

15.8 miles (25.4 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Covington County

Touchdown point

31.200, -86.370

Lift-off point

31.390, -86.230

Record number

1043

Strong southerly winds developed ahead of a cold front and caused low level shear to increase across the area. This low level shear aided in the development of several tornadoes across the area.

The tornado first touched down near Hillcrest Ponds around the junction of county roads 34 and 45, then moved northeast, before lifting back into the clouds near county road 70 just west of Friendship. Considerable damage occurred along the path of the tornado. The first residence hit had two large grain silos torn from their foundations. One was thrown roughly 15 yards, the other about 150 yards across the road and into a nearby pasture. Another home sustained considerable damage when an outbuilding was lifted by the tornado and thrown into the home. Several other homes along the path of the tornado suffered roof damage. The most significant and widespread damage along the path of the tornado occurred near Opine, where up to six commercial poultry farm buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged. Approximately 130,000 chickens were killed.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:58 UTC and running to 22:59 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 16:29 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.

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

27 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.