Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2007

EF0 tornado, Industry, Alabama, March 1, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 3.1 miles across Butler County on March 1, 2007, touching down at 12:05 PM CST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
March 1, 2007
Touchdown
12:05 PM CST (18:05 UTC)
Lifted
12:10 PM CST (18:10 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
3.1 miles (5.1 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Butler County
Touchdown point
31.633, -86.636
Lift-off point
31.664, -86.589
Record number
0703011205-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Isolated thunderstorms developed ahead of a strong spring cold front. One of these thunderstorms produced a significant tornado in Wilcox County.

A weak tornado blew down several trees east of Georgiana. A tractor trailer was blown off State Highway 106 by the wind.

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 16:07 UTC and running to 01:39 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:50 UTC16:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMOB
16:07 UTC01:39 UTCTornado WatchMOB
19:55 UTC00:00 UTCWind AdvisoryMOB
20:16 UTC20:47 UTCTornado WarningMOB

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 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 16:46 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.

Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL (KVPS), 00:00Z

5.9 hours after it, 130 km from the path. March 2, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-03-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 902 joules per kilogram, CIN -24, lifted condensation level 604 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL at 00:00Z on 2007-03-02The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 328 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
902 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-24 J/kg
Surface CAPE
220 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
604 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
328 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
409 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.0
Supercell composite
11.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Greenville (PRN), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:56 UTC6666160° 7 kt1005.8TS BR
17:33 UTC66.266.20° 0 kt1005.4-RA BR
17:56 UTC6868150° 8 kt141004.7-RA
18:48 UTC6868200° 5 kt1003-RA BR
18:56 UTC69690° 0 kt1002.7-RA
19:07 UTC69.869.8 5 kt1003-TSRA BR

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

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
15:58 UTCHAIL 12 W GreenvilleButler, ALQUARTER SIZE HAIL JUST WEST OF GREENVILLE
20:42 UTCHAIL 17 S HaynevilleLowndes, ALQUARTER SIZE HAIL WAS OBSERVED SOUTHWEST OF LETOHATCHEE.
20:48 UTCTORNADO 213 Se HaynevilleLowndes, AL*** 4 INJ *** A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN SE LOWNDES COUNTY NEAR LETOHATCHEE AND MOVED INTO MONTGOMERY COUNTY. DAMAGE PATH WAS OVER 26 MILES AND 600 YARDS WIDE. WINDS WERE ESTIMATED AROUND 135 MPH. FOUR INJURIES WERE REPOR
21:05 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD10 Se HaynevilleLowndes, ALEMA REPORTS TOUCHDOWN IN LETOHATCHEE.
21:05 UTCTORNADO12 Se HaynevilleLowndes, ALTOUCHDOWN REPORTED IN SANDY RIDGE. SEVERAL HOUSES DAMAGED.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 1, 2007

42 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 11:30 AM CSTEF0Monroe, MO2.150
March 11:40 AM CSTEF1Monroe, MO3.460
March 11:43 AM CSTEF1Monroe, MO8.6100
March 14:28 AM CSTEF0Carroll, AR2.050$10,000
March 16:24 AM CSTEF3Ozark, MO15.02001$760,000
March 19:50 AM CSTEF0Catahoula Parish, LA0.550
March 110:45 AM CSTEF0Union, IL1.8150$100,000
March 111:20 AM CSTEF0Santa Rosa, FL0.530$8,000
March 111:58 AM CSTEF1Yazoo, MS6.5100$90,000
March 112:27 PM CSTEF4Millers Ferry tornado, AL6.150012$2.0 million
March 112:31 PM CSTEF1Dallas, AL12.2500$250,000
March 112:47 PM CSTEF0Macon, IL1.0301$37,000
March 11:08 PM CSTEF4Enterprise tornado, AL10.3500950$250 million
March 11:48 PM CSTEF1Dale, AL7.11504$2.5 million
March 11:52 PM CSTEF1Henry, AL to GA30.81502$11 million
March 12:20 PM CSTEF1Todd, KY0.230$35,000
March 12:48 PM CSTEF2Lowndes, AL24.66006$700,000
March 12:59 PM CSTEF1Fayette, AL11.2150$50,000
March 13:00 PM CSTEF1Tuscaloosa, AL3.7100$50,000
March 14:11 PM ESTEF1Stewart, GA1.5250$400,000
March 13:12 PM CSTEF1Barbour, AL2.475
March 13:45 PM CSTEF2Winston, AL9.6100$50,000
March 14:06 PM CSTEF1Jefferson, AL0.9400$100,000
March 15:29 PM ESTEF2Taylor, GA7.744814$500,000
March 15:34 PM ESTEF3Crawford, GA9.74489$525,000
March 15:49 PM ESTEF1Crawford, GA11.9100$100,000
March 15:51 PM ESTEF0Bibb, GA2.5100$100,000
March 15:27 PM CSTEF2Muscogee, AL to GA11.73001$28 million
March 16:30 PM ESTEF1Jones, GA3.6150$500,000
March 16:44 PM ESTEF0Jones, GA0.050$5,000
March 15:56 PM CSTEF1Shelby, AL0.7100$30,000
March 17:00 PM ESTEF1Talbot, GA4.1100$50,000
March 18:08 PM ESTEF2Warren, GA11.74483$700,000
March 19:00 PM ESTEF3Webster, GA40.11,790211$111 million
March 19:36 PM ESTEF3Macon, GA3.11,790$2,000
March 110:30 PM ESTEF0Bleckley, GA1.4448$250,000
March 110:40 PM ESTEF2Wilkinson, GA13.3895$30,000
March 110:52 PM ESTEF1Marion, GA2.5100$25,000
March 111:44 PM ESTEF2Baker, GA30.520063$4.0 million
March 112:20 AM ESTEF2Worth, GA4.51502$275,000
March 112:30 AM ESTEF2Worth, GA2.9200$500,000
March 112:42 AM ESTEF1Tift, GA7.9150$1.4 million

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.