EF0 tornado, Hogglesville, Alabama, September 5, 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

September 5, 2011

Touchdown

12:00 PM CDT (17:00 UTC)

Lifted

12:04 PM CDT (17:04 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.5 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$12,000

County

Hale County

Touchdown point

32.779, -87.496

Lift-off point

32.828, -87.487

Record number

1109051100-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.

• Softwood trees fell on a hay storage building, damaging the roof.
• A few trees uprooted near the intersection of County Road 32. Start Point of Sparks Creek EF-0 Tornado (Tropical Storm Lee)
• Trees snapped and uprooted south of this point. End Point of Sparks Creek EF-0 Tornado (Tropical Storm Lee)
• Trees uprooted, falling onto a home and damaging the roof.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A tropical depression developed in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, September 1 and strengthened as it remained nearly stationary becoming Tropical Storm Lee Friday afternoon, September 2. Tropical Storm Lee slowly moved northward toward the central Louisiana coast, eventually making landfall Sunday, September 4 near Vermillion Bay, LA, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 45 mph. Rain bands spread northward into Central Alabama Saturday afternoon, September 3, skirting the southwest corner of the area for approximately 6 hours before pushing further north across west Central Alabama. Moderate to heavy rainfall finally moved into other portions of the area overnight and continued through Sunday, September 4. Lee was downgraded to an extratropical cyclone early Monday morning, September 5. As the remnants of Lee interacted with an approaching cold front, heavy rainfall and gusty winds continued to affect Central Alabama through late Monday evening, September 7. ||The remnants of Tropical Storm Lee brought beneficial rainfall to Central Alabama over several days. However, an extended period of heavy rainfall led to significant flash flooding across portions of north Central Alabama, including the Birmingham metro area. First Responders across the Birmingham area conducted at least 30 water rescues as heavy rainfall caused widespread urban flooding and area creeks to rise out their banks, flooding nearby streets and neighborhoods. In addition, two tornadoes touched down and strong gradient winds caused widespread damage across many counties. ||An area of maximum rainfall stretched from southwest to northeast along and north of the Interstate 59 corridor, with more than 8 inches of event total rainfall in many locations. The Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport set a new record for maximum daily rainfall with 7.11 inches on Monday, September 5. The previous record was 2.1 inches set in 1949. Longtime COOP Observer in Pinson Alabama, James B. Price, has been taking observations since January 1, 1951. The remnants of Tropical Storm Lee set a new record daily maximum rainfall of 8.94 inches on Monday, September 5 in Pinson. The previous record for September 5 was 1.2 inches set in 1968. Also, the 8.94 inches on September 5, 2011 breaks the all time record of rainfall received on any calendar day in Pinson. The previous record was 6.85 inches set on March 19, 1970.

An EF0 tornado, associated with the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, with estimated peak winds of 70 MPH touched down approximately 8 miles northeast of Greensboro, near the intersection of County Road 32 and County Road 51. The tornado moved north-northeast, parallel to Alabama Highway 25, and lifted just north of Starling Rd. The tornado snapped off or uprooted several trees. The downed trees caused roof damage to a house and a small storage barn. The metal roof panels of another outbuilding were torn off.

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 10:37 UTC and running to 21:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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.

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:00 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 2011 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

8 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.