EF1 tornado, Troy, Alabama, August 6, 2015

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

August 6, 2015

Touchdown

10:35 PM CDT (03:35 UTC)

Lifted

10:36 PM CDT (03:36 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

7

County

Pike County

Touchdown point

31.782, -85.940

Lift-off point

31.776, -85.938

Record number

1508062135-01

33 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 103 mph.

• tractor trailern overturned. empty trailer slid 100 yds.
• Facade over entryway blown out
• Small corner of roof material pulled back. Drive-through signs damaged.

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

A short wave trough moved across north Alabama triggered numerous showers and thunderstorms along the I-20 corridor. As the thunderstorm activity pushed southward during the late afternoon and evening hours, it encountered a more unstable air mass and some of the storms become severe with a few tornadoes.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed the damage in Troy and have confirmed that the damage was the result of an EF-1 Tornado. The tornado touched down just south of the Pike Liberal Arts School behind the Troy Walmart. Damage to the Walmart extended from the rear of the building to the front, with a portion of the roof collapsed. The damage was confined to a very narrow path, with other HVAC systems a few yards either side of the main damage area largely intact. Significant damage was caused to the entrances of the store as well. As the tornado crossed the parking lot, it pushed an empty tractor-trailer approximately 100 yards into a second tractor trailer, damaging both. A third tractor trailer was overturned, causing major damage. The tornado then clipped the south end of a strip mall, collapsing the front glass walls and a portion of a masonry wall on the side of Hibbett Sporting Goods. Minor damage was caused to the canopy of the Murphy USA gas station across the parking lot. The tornado crossed U.S. Highway 231 and weakened rapidly, with only minor damage caused to a convenience store across the highway before dissipating. Peak wind estimated at 100 mph.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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 Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:37 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 2015 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.