EF0 tornado, White Plains, Alabama, February 28, 2011

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

February 28, 2011

Touchdown

5:28 PM CST (23:28 UTC)

Lifted

5:30 PM CST (23:30 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.9 miles (3.1 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$45,000

County

Chambers County

Touchdown point

33.007, -85.399

Lift-off point

33.008, -85.366

Record number

1102281728-01

On the afternoon of Sunday, February 27th, a low pressure system developed in the Southern Plains, eventually tracking across the Tennessee Valley, well to the north of Alabama. In response to this low pressure, coupled by high pressure off the Atlantic Coast, southerly flow brought low 60 dew point temperatures as far north as Huntsville by 12 am Sunday night. By the late morning hours of Monday, February 28th, a secondary surface low developed and tracked across the northern half of the state of Alabama. This surface low created storms that began of a cellular nature by Noon on Monday. These cells evolved into a broken line of thunderstorms by the middle of the afternoon on Monday. Embedded in the line were storms that developed supercellular structures, a few of which spawned tornadoes and many areas of straight line wind damage. Click on each for a summary of the tornadoes.

A tornado touched down just west of the intersection of County Road 160 and County Road 162, near Five Points and moved east along County Road 160 for 1.9 miles before lifting near Highway 431. A dozen trees were blown down along the path, causing damage to a few vehicles. At least six homes sustained minor roof, shingle or skirting damage. One barn was destroyed.

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 18:39 UTC and running to 01:56 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 19:40 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 2011 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.