EF1 tornado, Tibbie to Sims Chapel, Alabama, March 3, 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

March 3, 2019

Touchdown

12:55 PM CST (18:55 UTC)

Lifted

12:56 PM CST (18:56 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.2 miles (0.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Washington County

Touchdown point

31.419, -88.257

Lift-off point

31.419, -88.254

Record number

1903031255-01

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• Beginning point of Sims Chapel Tornado based on high resolution satellite imagery depicting a narrow swath of deforestation.
• Tree damage visible at this location via high resolution satellite imagery.

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

A cold front moved into the southeast during day. This front moved into a warm and unstable airmass, causing severe thunderstorms to develop. The storms produced 4 tornadoes in southwest Alabama.

The tornado touched down just west of Highway 17, 3 miles south of Chatom. The tornado crossed Highway 17 and continued east into a more forested areas. The path length is an estimate as a final end point could not be determined due to the lack of road access. The tornado produced EF-1 damage to both softwood and hardwood, some of which were snapped.

The tornado began near John Johnston Road and continued east, adjacent to Fairford Road. The tornado lifted roughly just south of Price Rivers Road and just east of Fairford Road. The tornado produced tree damage along its path. snapping both softwood and hardwood trees. The most extensive tree damage was noted near the Sims Chapel Holiness Church. An addition to the church was damaged heavily. The addition was an open facing structure which allowed the wind to get inside. A few structures suffered minor damage along the path, due to downed trees. Based on radar data, the start point of the tornado could have occurred west of John Johnston Road, but this is in a remote area where access is limited.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:51 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:05 UTC and running to 20:40 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 15:51 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 Mobile radar (KMOB), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:52 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

44 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.