EF1 tornado, Stafford to Melrose, Alabama, March 31, 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

March 31, 2016

Touchdown

6:43 PM CDT (23:43 UTC)

Lifted

6:48 PM CDT (23:48 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.9 miles (4.6 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pickens County

Touchdown point

33.467, -88.188

Lift-off point

33.477, -88.139

Record number

1603311743-01

68 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX and NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Skirting and visible damage
• several trees uprooted with convergence. tree on home
• Several trees uprooted, some pointed north and some pointed northeast
• multi-trees uprooted and snapped

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 northwest Pickens County near Stafford and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-1 tornado. Maximum winds were estimated to be around 100 mph. ||The tornado started in Mississippi and crossed the state line into Pickens County about 2.3 miles south of Highway 82. The tornado tracked northeast and crossed Eagle Road and County Road 30 before dissipating just north of Highway 82. The damage along the path consisted mainly of snapped and uprooted trees. There was some minor damage to a mobile home as the tornado approached County Road 30.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northwest Pickens County just north of Ethelsville and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-1 tornado. Maximum winds were estimated to be around 95 mph. ||The tornado touched down near County Road 75 just south of Highway 34. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted along County Road 75, and there was some minor roof and siding damage to a single residence. The tornado tracked east-northeast in an area that was not accessible by vehicle. The next damage area was along Mineral-Springs Church Road just south of Highway 34, where numerous trees were uprooted and snapped. The tornado continued eastward along Highway 34 and produced loss of shingles to a home and destroyed several outbuildings. The tornado crossed Shockley Road and produced considerable damage to a metal roof of a wood framed home and damage to several outbuildings. The tornado lifted just east of this damage.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

21 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:22 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:12 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:00 UTC and running to 03:25 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:45 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.