EF2 tornado, Demopolis Muni Arpt, 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

8:07 PM CST (02:07 UTC)

Lifted

8:16 PM CST (02:16 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

6.0 miles (9.6 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

County

Marengo County

Touchdown point

32.421, -87.979

Lift-off point

32.481, -87.906

Record number

1912162007-01

30 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• old barn damaged, tree uprooted
• unanchored doublewide; 3 injuries at this location
• unanchored single wide home
• Visible roof shingle damage on house less than 20%

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

A very warm and moist air mass developed over Central Alabama on Monday, December 16th. Afternoon temperatures warmed into the lower and middle 70s, which was 15 to 20 degrees above normal for the middle of December. A surface low tracked north of Alabama Monday night and pushed a strong cold across the state. Several bands of strong to severe storms developed across Mississippi during the afternoon and moved into west Alabama that evening. Most of the severe weather damage across Central Alabama was associated with a long track supercell that started in Mississippi and tracked into southwest Alabama. The supercell entered southern Sumter County and tracked northeast to Shelby County.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in extreme northwest Marengo County and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 120 mph.||The tornado first touched down along County Road 28 where minor tree damage was noted on the east side of the road. The tornado tracked northeast over mainly forested areas of Marengo County for several miles producing sporadic tree damage. The tornado widened and strengthened rapidly as it continued northeast toward Highway 80. The tornado reached its widest point near Highway 80. Substantial tree damage was noted on both the north and south sides of Highway 80 along and near the intersection of County Road 57. A home sustained roof damage along County Road 57. On the north side of Highway 80, property and structural damage was extensive. Several homes sustained roof and structural damage. One brick home sustained complete roof loss and partial wall collapse.||Just east of that location, a single-wide and double-wide manufactured home on the same property were completely destroyed with the undercarriage of both blown a substantial distance. Inspection of both dwellings indicated little to no anchorage of the structures. Three people were reported injured at this location with one being airlifted for more serious injuries. Tree damage in this area was extensive with large old growth hardwoods snapped. The combination of the damage to the conventional brick home, along with the tree damage and manufactured home destruction, prompted the maximum wind rating of 120 mph. The tornado continued its northeast movement damaging additional structures north of Highway 80 before narrowing and weakening south of the Sumter County line, just west of downtown Demopolis.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:34 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:47 UTC and running to 04:36 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 00:37 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.

Demopolis (DYA), 2 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 136 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:07 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.