EF1 tornado, Hamilton Xrds to Brundidge Muni Arpt, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

February 15, 2016

Touchdown

6:20 PM CST (00:20 UTC)

Lifted

6:26 PM CST (00:26 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

5.0 miles (8.0 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pike County

Touchdown point

31.662, -85.840

Lift-off point

31.686, -85.760

Record number

1602151820-01

31 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• . snapped pine pointing 060 on top of snapped pine pointing north
• . 2 large Pines on the side of the creek pointing north east
• Open air arena covering largely destroyed, however barn upstream not affected.
• Metal roofing material from barn strewn 40 degrees to the right of the path for approx 200-300 yds.

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

A sharp 500 MB upper trof shifted eastward along the Lower Mississippi Valley. As the upper trof approached the Mississippi River, a surface low developed over southern Mississippi and deepened as it tracked northeast into central Alabama. A mixture of high precipitation (HP) supercells and line segments developed and consolidated into a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) south of Interstate 85 and east of Interstate 65, producing straight-line wind damage and four tornadoes.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southern Pike County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-1 tornado. Winds were estimated to be around 105 mph. ||The tornado formed along a QLCS and first touched down over an area of clear-cut forest just northwest of AL Hwy 125, approximately 1.5 miles west-southwest of U.S. Hwy 231. Shortly after touching down, it reached its peak wind speeds of approximately 105 mph, where it uprooted or snapped 50 to 100 pine trees across a path that approached AL Hwy 125. A mobile home was destroyed and a home was damaged due to the falling trees. It continued east-northeast and crossed U.S. Hwy 231 about 9/10 of a mile south of the intersection of AL Hwy 125 and U.S. Hwy 231. The tornado caused minor roof damage to a home along U.S. Hwy 231, and then destroyed a partially covered horse arena before crossing an open field and snapping numerous trees along the tree line. From there, the tornado crossed Pike County Road 4423 and continued on the same path as it crossed Pike County Road 4421. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted at both locations. The tornado appeared to broaden and weaken rapidly after crossing County Road 4421.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:02 UTC and running to 01:07 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 Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 40 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:20 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.