EF0 tornado, Orion to Sandfield, Alabama, March 31, 2020

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

March 31, 2020

Touchdown

10:34 AM CDT (15:34 UTC)

Lifted

10:36 AM CDT (15:36 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.6 km)

Path width

80 yards (73 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pike County

Touchdown point

31.854, -86.031

Lift-off point

31.858, -86.004

Record number

2003310934-01

23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• larger tree down across field.

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

A strong upper level disturbance caused a wave of low pressure to form along a quasi-stationary front and move eastward along the Highway 80 and Interstate 85 corridors. This allowed a warm front to lift northward across the southeast portions of Central Alabama. North of the warm front, a line of showers with sporadic lightning strikes along an inverted trough was able to produce damaging winds despite a cool and stable air mass at the surface, knocking down numerous trees from Tuscaloosa County to Randolph County during the first part of the morning. A QLCS ahead of the cold front moved eastward later in the morning from Lowndes County to Barbour County, producing sporadic damaging winds. Additionally, bookend vortices and embedded supercell structures several weak tornadoes and one strong tornado.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northwest Pike County and determined that it was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum winds near 70 mph. Damage was limited to a few snapped and uprooted pine trees along its path. A tornado debris signature was noted with this storm.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage near the Troy Municipal Airport in northern Pike County and determined that it was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum winds near 80 mph.||The tornado formed near the intersection of Lake Road and Oak Grove Road just southwest of Troy Municipal Airport. Branches and a couple of trees were uprooted along Oak Grove Road. The tornado continued east-northeastward, removing the roof from a barn and uprooting a few more trees, before crossing the north-south runways at the airport. The tornado passed south of the terminal and very near the KTOI ASOS. Winds backed from 200 degrees to 170 degrees and then veered to 260 degrees while gusting to 47 mph. The tornado uprooted a few trees before dissipating west of Highway 231.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northeast Pike County and determined that it was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum winds near 75 mph. The tornado formed in a wooded rural area south of Highway 223 and the Sandfield community. Several trees were uprooted as it crossed a dirt road and County Road 6615. The tornado appeared to dissipate prior to reaching the Bullock County line. A brief tornado debris signature was also observed on the KMXX radar.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:32 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 15:55 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:51 UTC and running to 16:37 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 12:57 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.

Troy Municipal (TOI), 1 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 69 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:35 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 2020 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.