EF2 tornado, Sipsey, Alabama, December 10, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 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. 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.

Rating

EF2

Date

December 10, 2008

Touchdown

1:01 AM CST (07:01 UTC)

Lifted

1:07 AM CST (07:07 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

4.7 miles (7.5 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Walker County

Touchdown point

33.822, -87.145

Lift-off point

33.867, -87.084

Record number

0812100101-01

A developing strong storm system across the Southeastern United States caused several severe thunderstorms and locally heavy rainfall. Cold air surging in on the back side of the storm system caused the rain to turn over to snow, some of which became heavy.

The tornado touched down near the intersection of Snow Drive and Old Pineywoods Road, just north of US-78. It then traveled northeastward and crossed CR-77 and lifted shortly thereafter. One mobile home was totally destroyed and rolled approximately 50 feet. At least two additional mobile homes suffered significant damage. Two chicken houses were damaged. A few hundred trees were either snapped off or were uprooted along the path.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:59 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:05 UTC and running to 07:41 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 05:52 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 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), 46 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:00 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 2008 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.