EF2 tornado, Brooklyn, Alabama, February 15, 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

February 15, 2016

Touchdown

4:33 PM CST (22:33 UTC)

Lifted

4:37 PM CST (22:37 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.2 miles (3.5 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$750,000

County

Conecuh County

Touchdown point

31.272, -86.848

Lift-off point

31.293, -86.820

Record number

1602151633-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 112 mph.

• center of tornado to the west

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

Severe thunderstorms developed across southwest and south central Alabama during the afternoon and evening of February 15th as a strong upper level disturbance moved from the southern Plains to the Tennessee Valley. The severe storms developed along and ahead of the trailing cold front, producing both tornadoes and straight line wind damage.

This tornado was produced from the same parent supercell thunderstorm that produced the EF-3 tornado in Century, FL. The tornado in Conecuh County first touched down south of County Road 6 and quickly strengthened as it crossed the road. EF-2 intensity damage was observed at the Johnsonville Volunteer Fire Department which was completely destroyed. Significant tree damage was noted in the area and a well built home suffered extensive roof damage. The tornado continued to the northwest toward the Johnsonville Circle area where a few homes suffered roof damage. A single wide mobile home on Johnsonville Circle was destroyed. The mobile home was not anchored. Damage in this area was consistent with EF-1 intensity. The tornado lifted in the woods just to the northeast of the end of Clinton Drive.

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

37 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:56 UTC, 37 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:06 UTC and running to 23:55 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 19:56 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 Eglin Afb radar (KEVX), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:33 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

16 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.