Severe Thunderstorms of February 15, 2016

Severe Thunderstorms of February 15, 2016

Event Summary for Central Alabama

On the evening of February 15th, four tornadoes and damaging winds affected the southeastern portion of the NWS Birmingham forecast area.

Aloft, the area was just north of the subtropical jet at 300 MB with a neutral-tilted 500 MB trough located across the Lower Mississippi Valley. The upper trough sharpened and became more dynamic as it approached Alabama, resulting in a deepening surface low and strengthening low-level jet during the afternoon and early evening hours. At the same time, a mixture of high precipitation (HP) supercells and line segments developed and consolidated into a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) south of Interstate 85 and east of Interstate 65. Unusually cold temperatures aloft helped to create instability despite surface temperatures mainly in the 60s and dew points in the 50s in the warm sector.

Severe weather was mainly limited to areas west of Alabama through the afternoon and became refocused farther east along and ahead of a low-level confluence band extending from southwest Alabama to the northeast. Ahead of this confluence band, a discrete supercell produced a weak tornado in eastern Montgomery County. As the QLCS became more organized, a long-track and previously tornadic supercell merged with and likely enhanced the northern end of the QLCS which spawned two tornadoes in Russell County. The QLCS continued to gain momentum and low-level convergence farther south, which resulted in a spin-up tornado in southern Pike County. Although there were no discernable tornado debris signatures, each of the three QLCS tornadoes produced narrow paths of significant damage for several miles. These non-descending circulations were likely very shallow and did not contain enough upward velocity to loft debris high enough to be detected by radar.

In addition to the tornadoes, National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed two areas of straight-line wind damage. The wind damage occurred near Goshen in eastern Pike County and near Louisville in Barbour County. More information on the wind damage can be found here.

The information contained below is the individual tornado events that occurred. The data is PRELIMINARY and may be subject to change.

Location/Clickable Detailed Summary Link	Damage Rating/Estimated Maximum Wind Speeds	Injuries/Fatalities	Damage Path Length/Width	Starting Point/Time	Ending Point/Time
Mathews Tornado (Montgomery County)	EF-0 80 mph	None	2.5 miles 75 yards	2 S Mathews 32.2352/-86.0243 400 pm	Mathews 32.2636/-85.9989 405 pm
Tarentum Tornado (Pike County)	EF-1 105 mph	None	5.0 miles 400 yards	4 SSW Brundidge 31.6617/-85.8398 620 pm	4 SE Brundidge 31.6855/-85.7599 626 pm
Huguley Rd Tornado (Russell County)	EF-1 90 mph	None	6.8 miles 400 yards	7.6 SW Hugley 32.4000/-85.3476 657 pm	1.4 WNW Hugley 32.4493/-85.2538 704 pm
Crawford Tornado (Russell/Lee County)	EF-0 75 mph	None	7.2 miles 250 yards	5.7 SW Crawford 32.3952/-85.2546 700 pm	1.5 NNE Crawford 32.4778/-85.1836 708 pm

Pertinent Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Data from this Event

Severe Weather Episode Data

300 mb Analysis February 15 at 6 am	300 mb Analysis February 15 at 6 pm	300 mb Analysis February 16 at 6 am
500 mb Analysis February 15 at 6 am	500 mb Analysis February 15 at 6 pm	500 mb Analysis February 16 at 6 am
850 mb Analysis February 15 at 6 am	850 mb Analysis February 15 at 6 pm	850 mb Analysis February 16 at 6 am
Surface Analysis February 15 at 6 am	Surface Analysis February 15 at 6 pm	Surface Analysis February 16 at 6 am
Day 1 Outlook Issued February 15 at 2 pm	Day 1 Outlook Issued February 15 at 12 am	Day 2 Outlook Issued February 14 at 1130 am
Day 1 Tornado Probabilities Issued February 15 2 pm	Day 1 Wind Damage Probabilities Issued February 15 2 pm	Day 1 Hail Probabilities Issued February 15 2 pm
KBMX Sounding 6 am February 15	KBMX Sounding 6 pm February 15	Storm Reports February 15