EF3 tornado, Prattville Arpt to Fays, Alabama, February 17, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

February 17, 2008

Touchdown

2:58 PM CST (20:58 UTC)

Lifted

3:15 PM CST (21:15 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

14.7 miles (23.6 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

50

Property damage

$10 million

Counties

Autauga and Elmore counties

Touchdown point

32.400, -86.477

Lift-off point

32.583, -86.366

Record number

0802171458-01

A broken squall line, sparked by an advancing cold front and strong upper level storm, caused severe thunderstorms and tornadoes across Central Alabama.

The tornado touched down near the waste water treatment facility south southwest of the city of Prattville. It then tracked northeastward and crossed US Highway 82, US Highway 31, and Cobbs Ford Road. The southern and eastern parts of Prattville sustained significant damage. The highest winds likely occurred along Cobbs Ford Road/East Main Street near McQueen Smith Road and in the Silver Hills Subdivision. An estimated 200 residential homes and 40 businesses were damaged or destroyed. Hundreds of trees were either snapped off or were uprooted along the path. In addition, 50 injuries were reported, but there were no fatalities.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:31 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:24 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:34 UTC and running to 22:52 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:42 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.

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

25 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.