EF0 tornado, Melrose, Alabama, February 2, 2016

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

February 2, 2016

Touchdown

11:02 PM CST (05:02 UTC)

Lifted

11:08 PM CST (05:08 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

4.2 miles (6.7 km)

Path width

1,400 yards (1280 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pickens County

Touchdown point

33.396, -88.163

Lift-off point

33.434, -88.107

Record number

1602022302-01

77 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 135 mph.

• . double wide home slit approximately 50 feet northeast of the pilings.
• 2single wide homes destroyed
• 9 homes damaged along MLK Rd
• Left Edge. Dead/weak limb snaps

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

A strong upper level system developed over the Central Plains and a surface low moved from the Mid Mississippi Valley into the Great Lakes. Although this was well removed from Central Alabama, the system was strong enough that winds at the surface and aloft increased significantly. This produced high wind shear. The combination of the high precipitable water values and unseasonably warm temperatures produced very unstable conditions across central Alabama. A cold front approached the region late Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday evening, a few supercell thunderstorms developed. Eventually, the storms became organized into a line and produced heavy rainfall and flash flooding.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Pickens County and have determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-0 tornado. Winds were estimated to be around 85 mph.||The tornado touched down between Keasler Road and Heritage Road just north of the railroad tracks. It moved northeast crossing County Road 30, County Road 35, U.S. Highway 82, and Price Road Causing only tree damage. The tornado lifted before reaching County Road 45.

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 04:00 UTC and running to 06:11 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:54 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.

Columbus Afb (CBM), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:00 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.