EF1 tornado, Lawngate to Fosters Mill, 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 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

December 16, 2019

Touchdown

5:30 PM CST (23:30 UTC)

Lifted

5:43 PM CST (23:43 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

9.5 miles (15.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Limestone County

Touchdown point

34.700, -87.101

Lift-off point

34.760, -86.952

Record number

1912161730-01

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

• roof failure at window and rafters in attic
• Fence damage across street. Start point of tornado skipping along path.
• End point of the Monrovia tornado.
• Metal shed completely off the foundation, torn to bits, and wrapped around the trees behind the shed.

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 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 tornado touched down in Lawrence County, traveling over 14 miles and producing EF-2 damage before crossing the Tennessee River and entering Limestone County near Brigadoon Drive. At this location, a home on the river was observed to have metal roofing blown off. Additionally, hardwood trees were uprooted in the neighborhood. The tornado continued toward the Ripley Road and Batts Road. intersection where it caused minor roof damage to a single family home, uprooted trees, and destroyed a small shed. The tornado crossed Ripley Road where a couple more trees were uprooted and large branches were knocked down before it lifted near the southern area of Snake road.

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

34 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:56 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:48 UTC and running to 01:35 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), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:30 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.