Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2016
EF0 tornado, Garmon Xrds to Pratts, Alabama, April 6, 2016
From Garmon Xrds to Pratts, this EF0 tornado ran 5.4 miles across Barbour County on April 6, 2016, touching down at 12:16 AM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- April 6, 2016
- Touchdown
- 12:16 AM CDT (05:16 UTC)
- Lifted
- 12:27 AM CDT (05:27 UTC)
- On the ground
- 11 minutes
- Path length
- 5.4 miles (8.6 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Barbour County
- Touchdown point
- 31.881, -85.641
- Lift-off point
- 31.852, -85.557
- Record number
- 1604062316-01
The damage survey
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 75 mph.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
As a strong shortwave trough approached central Alabama from the west a low level southerly jet intensified over the area. Cold air advection aloft associated with the short wave produced steep lapse rates favorable for damaging winds and large hail.|The low level jet also produced a maximum of storm-relative helicity over east Alabama during the evening hours, and enhanced the threat of tornadoes.
NWS meteorologists surveyed damage west of Clayton and determined it was the result of a tornado. The tornado touched down just north of the intersection of County Road 9 and County Road 44 and continued eastward for approximately five miles before dissipating near County Road 31. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted along the path.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
20 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:56 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:20 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:00 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Wind Advisory | BMX |
| 21:39 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Wind Advisory | BMX |
| 04:56 UTC | 05:20 UTC | Tornado Warning | BMX |
| 05:23 UTC | 06:10 UTC | Tornado Warning | BMX |
| 12:05 UTC | 14:00 UTC | Dense Fog Advisory | BMX |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:56 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 radar
The Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:16 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04:18 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 6 Wsw Hardaway | Bullock, AL | A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR THE MITCHELL COMMUNITY NEAR ALABAMA HWY 110. ESTIMATED PEAK WINDS OF 75 MPH WERE ENCOUNTERED ALONG THE 3 MILE LONG 300 YARD WIDE PATH...SNAPPING OR UPROOTING SEVERAL TREES ALONG THE PATH. |
| 04:24 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 4 Wnw Shopton | Montgomery, AL | A WEAK TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN BRIEFLY NEAR THE MATHEWS COMMUNTY SOUTHWEST OF THE INTERSECTION OF US HWY 82 AND OLD PIKE ROAD...SNAPPING A FEW TREES ALONG THE .77 MILE LONG 50 YARD WIDE PATH. A TDS WAS OBSERVED BY THE KMXX |
| 04:54 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 4 Nw Midway | Bullock, AL | A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST WEST OF BULLOCK COUNTY RD 35 AND TRAVELED EAST FOR 7.74 MILES BEFORE LIFTING JUST WEST OF THE BARBOUR COUNTY LINE...WITH A MAXIMUM WIDTH OF 250 YARDS AND PEAK WINDS OF 120 MPH. THE TORNADO SNA |
| 05:16 UTC | TORNADO 0 | N Boot Hill | Barbour, AL | A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN RURAL BARBOUR COUNTY WEST OF CLAYTON...NORTH OF THE CR 9 AND CR 44 INTERSECTION. IT CONTINUED EASTWARD FOR NEARLY 5.4 MILES AND SNAPPED OR UPROOTED NUMEROUS TREES BEFORE LIFTING. IT PRODUCED A M |
| 05:22 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 4 N Hawkinsville | Russell, AL | TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN RURAL SOUTHERN RUSSELL COUNTY JUST INSIDE THE COUNTY LINE. AS IT CROSSED FARMLAND IT FLIPPED TWO IRRIGATION PIVOTS AND DESTROYED A SHED. THE TORNADO THEN SNAPPED AND UPROOTED NUMEROUS TREES ALONG |
| 05:25 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 5 Nne Hawkinsville | Russell, AL | BRIEF TOR WITH WINDS OF 70MPH TOUCHED DOWN ALONG BARBOUR CREEK RD SNAPPING AND UPROOTING NUMEROUS TREES. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 6, 2016
9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 6 | 10:55 PM CDT | EF0 | Montgomery, AL | 6.0 | 250 | |||
| April 6 | 11:18 PM CDT | EF0 | Bullock, AL | 3.0 | 300 | |||
| April 6 | 11:24 PM CDT | EF0 | Montgomery, AL | 0.8 | 50 | |||
| April 6 | 11:32 PM CDT | EF0 | Lee, AL | 0.7 | 250 | |||
| April 6 | 11:44 PM CDT | EF0 | Lee, AL | 4.7 | 200 | |||
| April 6 | 11:54 PM CDT | EF2 | Bullock, AL | 7.7 | 250 | |||
| April 6 | 11:57 PM CDT | EF1 | Russell, AL | 7.5 | 200 | |||
| April 6 | 12:22 AM CDT | EF0 | Russell, AL | 1.3 | 75 | |||
| April 6 | 1:55 AM EDT | EF0 | Stewart, GA | 0.2 | 50 | $20,000 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.