EF1 tornado, Uchee to Crawford, 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

6:57 PM CST (00:57 UTC)

Lifted

7:04 PM CST (01:04 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

6.8 miles (10.9 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Russell County

Touchdown point

32.400, -85.348

Lift-off point

32.449, -85.254

Record number

1602151857-01

57 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 88 mph.

• Estimated start point of Huguley EF-1 Tornado - February 15, 2016.
• Estimated start point of Crawford EF-0 Tornado.
• Estimated End Point of Huguley EF-1 Tornado.
• Damage to outbuildings behind home where a tree reportedly fell on a pickup truck.

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 northwestern Russell County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-1 tornado. Winds were estimated to be around 90 mph.||The tornado touched down just southwest of Huguley Road, where it quickly intensified and snapped or uprooted numerous trees. The tornado achieved maximum intensity at this location, with winds around 90 mph. The most concentrated tree damage to mostly softwood trees was also observed. Moving quickly northeastward, the tornado crossed Capps Road, Phillips Road, Willis Valley Road, and Herring Road. A large steel truss shed was completely destroyed on Herring and lofted upward over power lines. An adjacent single family home sustained shingle damage, and a brick chimney collapsed. These were the only structures damaged in this tornado. Continuing northeastward, the tornado crossed U. S. Highway 80. Sporadic tree damage was noted along Green Dudley Road before ending at Thomas Road.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northern Russell County and extreme southern Lee County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-0 tornado. Winds were estimated to be around 75 mph. ||The tornado touched down just southwest of Padgett Road in northwestern Russell County, where sporadic tree damage was noted. As the tornado continued northeastward, the most significant tree damage was observed along Brown Road, where numerous trees were uprooted or snapped in a sporadic pattern. The tornado paralleled Brown Road for several miles, where a few homes sustained shingle damage. An outbuilding along Brown Road just southwest of Crawford sustained heavy roof damage. An uninhabited single family home sustained damage as a large cedar tree fell onto it just north of Crawford along Bleeker Road. The final tree damage from the tornado was noted just inside the Lee County line along County Road 179.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:09 UTC and running to 01:32 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 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 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), 48 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:55 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.