EF0 tornado, Mitchell Xrd to Whatley Xrd, Alabama, March 31, 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

March 31, 2016

Touchdown

12:19 AM CDT (05:19 UTC)

Lifted

12:23 AM CDT (05:23 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.1 miles (3.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lee County

Touchdown point

32.534, -85.379

Lift-off point

32.544, -85.342

Record number

1603312319-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 73 mph.

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

A very warm and unstable air mass developed over west Alabama by the late afternoon on March 31st. Surface air temperatures warmed into the upper 70s with surface dewpoints in the upper 60s. Thunderstorms developed rapidly over Mississippi and spread into central Alabama during the evening hours. 0-6 km Bulk Shear values increased to between 50 and 60 knots and the storms quickly became severe, including tornadoes.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in south central Lee County near Beauregard and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-0 tornado. Maximum winds were estimated to be around 70 mph. The tornado began near the intersection of State Road 51 and Lee Rd 47, where several pine trees were snapped and uprooted in a convergent pattern. One half mile to the east-northeast, the tornado caused shingle damage to a house along Lee Rd 114. The tornado continued for an additional 1.5 miles and caused minor tree and shingle damage before dissipating near the intersection of Lee Rd 400 and Lee Rd 166.

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 01:15 UTC and running to 06:14 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 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.

Auburn-Opelika Apt (AUO), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 40 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:20 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

19 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.