EF0 tornado, Pleasant Ridge, 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

5:23 PM CST (23:23 UTC)

Lifted

5:24 PM CST (23:24 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Marion County

Touchdown point

34.176, -87.954

Lift-off point

34.178, -87.949

Record number

1501031723-01

10 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 85 mph.

• A few dozen trees uprooted in front of home and in grove to the southwest of home.
• Two trees uprooted in slightly convergent path, one pointed 100 and the other more towards 070. Another weak pine was uprooted about 300 yards upstream.
• Brief touchdown of a tornado approximately 500 yds long 100 yds wide. Debris was strewn from the home from 360 through 100 degrees. Two uprooted hardwoods downwind of the home fell in a slightly convergent pattern.
• Most trees along a roadbank at edge of open field.

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 Marion County near the city of Hamilton and confirmed a weak tornado. The tornado touched down near the intersection of Highway 43 and Beecher Street, about 3 miles northeast of Hamilton. The tornado path was all on the southeast side of Highway 43/17. One home suffered roof and shingle damage, and several trees were uprooted. Some of the debris was thrown several hundred yards downstream.

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

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.

NWS Birmingham, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jan 3, 5:10 PM CST, 13 minutes earlier.

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HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
1223 PM CST SAT JAN 3 2015

ALZ011>015-017>050-041830-
MARION-LAMAR-FAYETTE-WINSTON-WALKER-BLOUNT-ETOWAH-CALHOUN-CHEROKEE-
CLEBURNE-PICKENS-TUSCALOOSA-JEFFERSON-SHELBY-ST. CLAIR-TALLADEGA-
CLAY-RANDOLPH-SUMTER-GREENE-HALE-PERRY-BIBB-CHILTON-COOSA-TALLAPOOSA-
CHAMBERS-MARENGO-DALLAS-AUTAUGA-LOWNDES-ELMORE-MONTGOMERY-MACON-
BULLOCK-LEE-RUSSELL-PIKE-BARBOUR-
1223 PM CST SAT JAN 3 2015

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR THE COUNTIES SERVED BY THE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE IN BIRMINGHAM.

.DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.

A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS IS EXPECTED TO TRACK ACROSS WEST ALABAMA
LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND INTO THE EVENING HOURS. A FEW OF THESE
STORMS COULD BECOME SEVERE WITH DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS AND
LOCALIZED FLASH FLOODING. AN ISOLATED TORNADO CANNOT BE RULED
OUT. THE MAIN THREAT AREA FOR SEVERE STORMS WILL BE GENERALLY
ALONG AND WEST OF INTERSTATE 65 FROM 4 PM UNTIL MIDNIGHT. HEAVY
RAINFALL ASSOCIATED WITH THE THUNDERSTORMS COULD LEAD TO FLASH
FLOODING TONIGHT AND THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING...GENERALLY ALONG AND
NORTH OF LINE FROM DEMOPOLIS...TO CALERA...TO HEFLIN.

DUE TO EXPECTED RAINFALL...POINTS ALONG THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER ARE
EXPECTED TO RISE ABOVE FLOOD STAGE TONIGHT. PLEASE REFER TO FLOOD
STATEMENTS FOR DETAILS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY.

THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR A HARD FREEZE ACROSS CENTRAL ALABAMA AS
TEMPERATURES OVERNIGHT WEDNESDAY INTO THURSDAY MORNING ARE
FORECAST TO DROP INTO THE TEENS. IN ADDITION TO THE VERY COLD
TEMPERATURES...BRISK NORTH WINDS WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THURSDAY
MORNING COULD PRODUCE DANGEROUS WIND CHILL VALUES NEAR ZERO
DEGREES ACROSS NORTH ALABAMA.

THE COLD AND DRY AIR MAY RESULT IN HIGH FIRE DANGER FOR THURSDAY
ACROSS THE AREA.

DUE TO EXPECTED RAINFALL...POINTS ALONG THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER AND
BLACK WARRIOR RIVER ARE EXPECTED TO RISE OR REMAIN ABOVE FLOOD
STAGE. PLEASE REFER TO FLOOD STATEMENTS FOR DETAILS.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT MAY BE
NEEDED LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.

08/MK

Haleyville (1M4), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:23 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.

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.