EF2 tornado, Mc Calla to Bessemer Arpt, Alabama, March 1, 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

March 1, 2016

Touchdown

5:43 PM CST (23:43 UTC)

Lifted

5:50 PM CST (23:50 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.6 miles (9.0 km)

Path width

465 yards (425 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

33.326, -86.996

Lift-off point

33.318, -86.901

Record number

1603011743-01

53 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 122 mph.

• shingle damage. road signs pointing northeast. sections of fence downed.
• fallen in multiple directions
• roof damage. garage and window failure. side wall pushed outward due to garage door failure. trees snapped, uprooted.
• 2 homes major damage uninhabitable

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

A highly amplified upper-level trough approached the central Gulf Coast Region during the afternoon hours. A deepening surface low over the Ohio Valley Region pushed a strong cold southeast towards Alabama. By the middle of the afternoon, deep layer shear had increased to 60 knots with 0-3 km storm-relative helicity values between 200 and 300 m2/s2. Destabilization and shear profiles favored severe thunderstorms, including tornadoes and large hail.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Western Jefferson County just east of McCalla and south of Bessemer and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-2 tornado. Maximum winds were estimated to be around 120-125 mph. The tornado touched down just east of McAdory High School on the west side of Overlook Circle with some damage to a roof. There were 12 homes and 1 church that suffered minor damage up to this point as the tornado proceeded east crossing Harper's Dairy Loop. From here it strengthened to an EF-2 as it crossed the Bent Brook neighborhood where it destroyed 6 homes and caused significant damage to 6 other homes. The pro shop at Bent Brook Golf Course also sustained minor damage along with a vehicle overturned. The tornado weakened to an EF-1 as it moved east of the golf course and caused minor damage to 2 more homes and destroyed a free standing garage. The tornado finally lifted just east of Morgan Road on Rice Circle. In total, 14 homes sustained minor damage, 6 sustained substantial damage, and 6 homes were destroyed. An additional 3 buildings sustained damage, along with several hundred trees snapped or uprooted along the path.

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:25 UTC and running to 01:21 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:48 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.

Alabaster (EET), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 24 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:41 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

2 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.