EF0 tornado, Snoddy to Ralph, Alabama, January 3, 2015

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

January 3, 2015

Touchdown

5:19 PM CST (23:19 UTC)

Lifted

5:21 PM CST (23:21 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.0 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Greene and Tuscaloosa counties

Touchdown point

33.124, -87.844

Lift-off point

33.138, -87.830

Record number

1501031719-01

3 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 80 mph.

• 100 yds wide here at widest point

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

A surface low tracked northeast across northern Mississippi and northwest Alabama Saturday afternoon and evening. An upper level disturbance moving out of the southwest United States providing ample lift and shear increased as the surface low deepened. The frontal system progressed slowly eastward, and this allowed for widespread rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Greene County and confirmed a weak tornado. The tornado touched down near the Greene-Tuscaloosa County Line just south of the Jena Community. The initial touchdown was along Shiloh Road where trees were uprooted. The tornado traveled northeast and crossed into Tuscaloosa County.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Tuscaloosa County and confirmed a weak tornado. The tornado entered Tuscaloosa County from Greene County about one-quarter of a mile south of Homestead Road. Two homes suffered roof damage and several outbuildings were damaged or destroyed. The tornado lifted just north of Romulus Road.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:16 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:27 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:20 UTC and running to 00:51 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 19:58 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 Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:18 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

13 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.