EF2 tornado, Three Notch to Enon, Alabama, April 6, 2016

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

April 6, 2016

Touchdown

11:54 PM CDT (04:54 UTC)

Lifted

12:06 AM CDT (05:06 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

7.7 miles (12.5 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bullock County

Touchdown point

32.127, -85.566

Lift-off point

32.117, -85.435

Record number

1604062254-01

35 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• numerous trees down 70 mph winds (small pine trees)
• numerous trees down, small pines, winds est 70 mph.
• EF0..number pines snapped. winds 75mph. DAT does not allow for trees snapped and EF0.
• small pine trees. winds est 70 mph.

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

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 in eastern Bullock County, north of the town of Midway, and determined it was the result of a tornado. The tornado began along County Road 35 where a few trees were snapped and uprooted. A debris signature was observed on KMXX Doppler Radar as the tornado continued eastbound, uprooting additional trees between County Road 35 and County Road 47. The tornado intensified as it crossed County Road 47, where a church was heavily damaged, including wall and roof failures to over half of the building. Here, the tornado was rated a low-end EF-2. Adjacent trees were also snapped and uprooted, and a few nearby homes sustained minor damage. The most chaotic scene was observed on a farmstead just east of County Road 103. At this location, a swath of trees were snapped and uprooted. Large metal farm equipment buildings were heavily damaged or destroyed. This damage was consistent with an EF-2 tornado. The tornado then weakened a bit as it moved east through the property, but continued to uproot and snap trees. Debris from upstream damage at the farmstead was also observed scattered about the area, approximately one-half mile downstream. Additional vegetative damage likely occurred as the tornado continued east, while dissipating, to near the Barbour/Russell County line in an area that was inaccessible.

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 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 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 Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:52 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 2016 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

9 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.