Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2011

EF0 tornado, Wiginton, Alabama, February 24, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Marion County on February 24, 2011, touching down at 10:18 PM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $75,000 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
February 24, 2011
Touchdown
10:18 PM CST (04:18 UTC)
Lifted
10:19 PM CST (04:19 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (0.9 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$75,000
County
Marion County
Touchdown point
34.286, -87.858
Lift-off point
34.288, -87.848
Record number
1102242218-01

What the Weather Service recorded

On the evening of Thursday, Feb 24th, A squall line passed through Central Alabama causing numerous reports of straight line wind damage. In addition, a brief EF0 tornado spun up in Marion County along the squall line.

A tornado touched down briefly just to the northwest of Hackleburg, doing extensive damage to numerous chicken houses, sheds and outbuildings in the area by removing pieces of tin roofing and peeling off metal siding. In a few cases, the roof was completely removed. One chicken house was completely destroyed. Many trees were knocked down, with several damaging homes. The outdoor recreation facility suffered minor roof damage and a couple light poles were knocked down. The tornado also knocked down a TV tower.

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

The warnings

21 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:57 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:30 UTC and running to 05:08 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:00 UTC18:00 UTCWind AdvisoryBMX
02:30 UTC05:08 UTCTornado WatchBMX
03:35 UTC04:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBMX
03:57 UTC04:30 UTCTornado WarningBMX
04:10 UTC05:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBMX

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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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

4.3 hours before the tornado, 158 km from the path. February 25, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 2011-02-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 52 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 1096 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, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 2011-02-25The 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 162 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
52 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
132 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1096 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
162 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
199 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 12:00Z

7.7 hours after it, 158 km from the path. February 25, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 2011-02-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 562 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, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 2011-02-25The 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 0 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 74 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
562 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
74 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
9 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:16 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
02:54 UTCNON-TSTM WND DMG2 N MoultonLawrence, ALTREE DOWN 2 MI NORTH OF MOULTON ON CR 170.
04:05 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Ese IukaColbert, ALTREES/POWER LINES DOWN ON US-72 NEAR THE MISSISSIPPI/ALABAMA STATE LINE.
04:06 UTCTSTM WND DMGCherokeeColbert, ALDAMAGE TO RESIDENCE IN DOWNTOWN CHEROKEE AT MM08 ON US-72.
04:08 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Se ShotsvilleMarion, ALROOF DAMAGE TO TWO HOMES OFF CR 19
04:15 UTCTSTM WND DMGHamiltonMarion, ALPOWERLINES DOWN ALONG MILITARY STREET
04:17 UTCTSTM WND DMG7 W TuscumbiaColbert, ALPOWER OUTAGES IN CROOKED OAK AND LOCUST SHORES.
04:17 UTCTSTM WND DMGTuscumbiaColbert, ALROOF DAMAGE TO JJS RESTAURAUNT AND PEOPLES DRUG STORE ON HWY 72 IN CHEROKEE. MULTIPLE POWER OUTAGES IN BARTON, CROOKED OAK, LOCUST SHORES, NEW BETHEL AND TUSCUMBIA.
04:18 UTCTORNADO 02 Wnw HackleburgMarion, ALA TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN BRIEFLY JUST TO THE NORTHWEST OF THE TOWN OF HACKLEBURG. TRAVELING ON THE GROUND FOR ONLY 1/2 MILE, THE TORNADO DID CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE TO A NUMBER OF CHICKEN BARNS AND OUTBUILDINGS IN THE AREA, EX
04:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Wnw HackleburgMarion, ALTWO LARGE TREES DOWN ALONG OLD HACKLEBURG RD.
04:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 S HackleburgMarion, ALREPORTS OF STRUCTURAL DAMAGE ALONG AL HWY 253 SOUTH OF HACKLEBURG. EXTENT OF DAMAGE UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME...POSSIBLE TORNADO.
04:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGHackleburgMarion, ALDAMAGE TO CHICKEN HOUSES. TV TOWERS TWISTED AND BLOWN DOWN. POSSIBLE TORNADO.
04:21 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Wnw Phil CampbellFranklin, ALNUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES WERE KNOCKED DOWN ALONG PORTIONS OF HIGHWAY 43 BETWEEN RUSSELLVILLE AND THE COUNTY LINE NORTHEAST OF HACKLEBURG.
04:24 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Sse Phil CampbellMarion, ALTREES AND POWER LINES KNOCKED DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 13 NEAR THE MARION COUNTY LINE.
04:26 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ene Phil CampbellFranklin, ALTREES WERE KNOCKED DOWN NEAR MILE MARKER 7 ON HIGHWAY 243.
04:27 UTCTSTM WND GST 63RussellvilleFranklin, ALMEDIA REPORTS 63MPH WIND GUST MEASURED FROM ALFA CAM.
04:34 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Nw FayetteFayette, ALBARN BLOWN ONTO HIGHWAY 107.
04:36 UTCTSTM WND DMGGlen AllenFayette, ALTREES DOWN.
04:48 UTCTSTM WND DMG10 Sw Double SpringsWinston, ALTREES DOWN.
04:52 UTCTSTM WND DMGPhil CampbellFranklin, ALPOWER OUTAGE IN PHIL CAMPBELL.
04:52 UTCNON-TSTM WND DMG6 S MoultonLawrence, ALSEVERAL TREES WERE KNOCKED DOWN ON LEOLA ROAD NEAR THE EDGE OF BANKHEAD NATIONAL FOREST. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
05:02 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 S Mcdowell Camp GrounWalker, ALBARN DAMAGED ON DUNCAN ROAD BETWEEN AL 5 AND AL 195.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 24, 2011

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 243:53 PM CSTEF1Perry, AR11.180$165,000
February 244:56 PM CSTEF1Lonoke, AR2.3100$75,000
February 245:03 PM CSTEF1Lonoke, AR1.6235$400,000
February 246:15 PM CSTEF0Fulton, KY1.150$30,000
February 246:32 PM CSTEF1Hickman, KY7.2100$80,000
February 247:25 PM CSTEF1West Carroll Parish, LA6.575$750,000
February 247:50 PM CSTEF2Christian, KY5.7300$600,000
February 247:50 PM CSTEF2Sharkey, MS7.3400$1.0 million
February 248:30 PM CSTEF2Decatur, TN12.2400$1.5 million
February 2410:02 PM CSTEF2Davidson, TN7.5100$550,000
February 2410:14 PM CSTEF2Wilson, TN8.01502$500,000
February 2411:10 PM CSTEF0Cullman, AL0.220

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.