EF2 tornado, Rigdom to Stewerds Store, Alabama, December 16, 2019

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

December 16, 2019

Touchdown

5:08 PM CST (23:08 UTC)

Lifted

5:34 PM CST (23:34 UTC)

On the ground

26 minutes

Path length

18.5 miles (29.7 km)

Path width

370 yards (338 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

0

Counties

Lawrence and Limestone counties

Touchdown point

34.645, -87.413

Lift-off point

34.774, -87.128

Record number

1912161708-01

113 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 134 mph.

• roof nailed to walls, nothing additional
• bricks removed from large portion of facing wall, few ties noted
• several trees snapped at the bases
• well-anchored mobile home pushed and some siding removed but otherwise in good shape

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

During the late afternoon and evening hours, a broken line of severe thunderstorms pushed rapidly east across north Alabama. The thunderstorms produced at least (6) tornadoes, numerous reports of wind damage and a couple reports of large hail in north Alabama.

A team consisting of National Weather Service, Lawrence County Emergency Management, and an Auburn University Structural Engineering survey team determined the damage in northern Lawrence County was attributed to a strong EF-2 tornado.||Damage was first observed along CR 101 north of CR 143. Large-limb tree damage was the primary damage indicator observed in this area, with estimated winds of 107 mph close to touchdown.||East of CR 101, the tornado intensified significantly as it approached CR 265. Approximately 1 mile south of Highway 20, major damage occurred to three structures. Structure damage indicators were a combination of single wide and double wide manufactured homes. It should be noted that one of the structures listed as a double wide was a prefabricated home with no anchor system. The traditional double wide manufactured home included an auger anchor system while the single wide home had a pan anchor system. Regardless of the anchor, each system failed due to intense lifting force, which led to the structure to roll off its plot, causing total destruction. Two fatalities and an injury were reported at the double wide home, with additional injuries at the other destroyed structures.||Thanks to preliminary footage from an Alabama Emergency Management Agency drone team, the tornado was observed to take a slight right turn and continue toward the Courtland area. Along and south of Alabama Highway 20 in Courtland, uprooted and large snapped tree branches were the main damage indicators. A small mobile home was slightly shifted off its plot, denoting mid-range EF-0 winds. The path continued east-northeast and crossed U.S. Highway 72, causing more tree damage on CR 150. Along CR 150, south of CR 400, the strongest damage indicator was a small and well-built block outbuilding. This structure was mostly destroyed, except for a back wall. The tornado continued to weaken as it approached and crossed CR 389. Large tree branches were downed and minor roof damage was observed at three residences. Minor tree damage continued toward the river in the vicinity of CR 400.||The tornado crossed the Tennessee River and laid down again on the Limestone County shore near Brigadoon Drive.

A tornado started right onshore of the Wheeler Lake / Tennessee River just east of the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant. The worst damage was east of the Power Plant, with snapped tree trunks, and also near Neely Hill Loop, where the roof of a home was taken off. The tornado periodically snapped or uprooted trees in between these locations before destroying a large shed just north of Tanner along U.S. Highway 31. The tornado finally lifted near Hatfield Lake Road.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:56 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:32 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:48 UTC and running to 02:32 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 19:25 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 Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:07 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 2019 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

37 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.