EF2 tornado, Fosters Mill, Alabama, March 19, 2018

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 19, 2018

Touchdown

6:08 PM CDT (23:08 UTC)

Lifted

6:46 PM CDT (23:46 UTC)

On the ground

38 minutes

Path length

23.5 miles (37.9 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Limestone County

Touchdown point

34.957, -87.205

Lift-off point

34.959, -86.792

Record number

1803191708-01

79 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• awning blown from shed app. 250 yds away
• roof nailed into walls; collapse of wall believed to be related to roof removal
• garage severely damaged, and demolished later
• debris strewn into field across the street

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

An isolated supercell produced hail during the early afternoon hours across far northwest and north central Alabama. By mid afternoon, a cluster of supercells developed in northern Mississippi and tracked east-southeast through much of north Alabama through the early evening hours. Two main supercell clusters produced multiple tornadoes and very large hail. Tornadoes ranged in strength from EF-0 to EF-2. The largest hail fell in Cullman County, with widespread and severe damage reported as a result. The largest hail stone reported to the National Weather Service was 5.25 inches in diameter weighing 8.9 ounces.

The tornado initially touched down just east of the Lauderdale-Limestone county line near the intersection of Union Hill Road and Shelton Road. Nearly all of the damage in northwest Limestone County consisted of snapped or uprooted trees, in a swath extending across Salem Minor Hill Road, Leggtown Road, and the Elk River. Significant tree damage was noted along Alabama Highway 127 and Veto Road north of Elkmont, where hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted. It was in this area where the tornado reached its maximum path width of 350 yards. The tornado continued east-northeast, narrowly missing the Saturn I rocket at the Alabama Welcome Center on Interstate 65. Tree damage continued on Hardiman Lane east of I-65, but roof damage also occurred to single-family homes. Similar damage was observed on Puckett Lane and Oak Grove Road. There is evidence (both from radar and ground surveys) to suggest that the tornado had multiple vortices between Oak Grove Road and Valley Drive, as there are two distinct damage paths in this area. Again, much of the damage was to trees and roofs of single-family and manufactured homes, as well as small sheds and barns. The most severe damage by far occurred along Alabama Highway 251 and Gatlin Road, where one or two houses had their roofs and roofing structures almost completely torn off, and several more had most of their shingles torn off. Fortunately the residents had taken shelter in a nearby basement and none were injured. The tornado weakened quickly, snapping and uprooting trees as it moved across Mitchell Loop, Old Schoolhouse Road, and Alabama Highway 53. No evidence of damage was found east of Highway 53.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:04 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:28 UTC and running to 00:31 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 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.

Pulaski (GZS), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:08 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 2018 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.