EF1 tornado, O Neal to Bethel, Alabama, March 2, 2012

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

March 2, 2012

Touchdown

3:39 PM CST (21:39 UTC)

Lifted

3:46 PM CST (21:46 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.2 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Limestone, Pendleton, Campbell, Clermont and Brown counties

Touchdown point

34.918, -86.858

Lift-off point

34.919, -86.812

Record number

1203021539-01

North Alabama experienced a portion of a much larger outbreak of tornadoes and severe weather from the Ohio Valley south through the Tennessee Valley to the Gulf Coast in advance of a strong cold front. The storms came in two waves. The first began during the mid-morning hours when two tornadic supercells developed across north central Alabama. The tornadoes (one EF-3 and one EF-2) tracked rapidly east-northeast across northeast Limestone and northern Madison Counties. ||During the early afternoon, numerous thunderstorms re-erupted across north Alabama, including several supercells. Most of these storms were large hail producers, in one case up to softball sized. Three additional weak tornadoes were spawned in Limestone County. There were also reports of isolated wind damage. One last band of storms rolled through parts of north central and northeast Alabama during the mid evening hours as the cold front moved through.

A tornado of EF-0 intensity with peak wind speeds of 85 mph touched down on the west side of Edgewood Road/County Road 65 a little south of the intersection with Coffman Road. Several trees were uprooted in this area with large branches from hardwood trees also snapped. The tornado moved in an easterly direction crossing County Road 26 and Old Elkmont Road. Minor and very sporadic tree damage was noted along the path. The width narrowed to less than 50 yards as it moved further east and finally lifted near the intersection of U.S. Highway 31 and Interstate 65. The last signs of any tornado damage were a few snapped and twisted tree limbs in this area.

A tornado was up to EF-1 intensity and peak wind speeds of 100 mph began a path in the Thach community, just west of the intersection of Thach Road and Oak Grove Road. The tornado moved nearly due east paralleling Thach Road for much of it's life cycle. The tornado appeared to skip along it's path, leaving some structures and trees intact but damaging others. The tornado finally lifted east of Highway 251. Numerous softwood and hardwood trees were snapped and uprooted along the tornado path. Several homes along the path had minor structural damage with lost of shingles, siding damage, and damage to one garage. One home had more significant damage to a section of it's roof. A well-constructed barn lost most of it's roof.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:26 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:53 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:20 UTC and running to 04:31 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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 Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 69 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:40 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 2012 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

69 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 70 of them

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.