Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2007
EF1 tornado, Castleberry, Alabama, April 14, 2007
This EF1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Conecuh County on April 14, 2007, touching down at 5:12 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $150,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF1
- Date
- April 14, 2007
- Touchdown
- 5:12 PM CDT (22:12 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:14 PM CDT (22:14 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.4 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $150,000
- County
- Conecuh County
- Touchdown point
- 31.333, -87.036
- Lift-off point
- 31.333, -87.036
- Record number
- 0704141612-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Large bow echo continued moving east across Alabama producing significant damage along its path.
A weak tornado developed along the leading edge of a large bow echo just northwest of Castleberry. The tornado blew down trees and damaged a residence just west of County Road 23. Estimated wind speeds were 85 to 90 mph. No injuries occurred.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:51 UTC and running to 22:26 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15:51 UTC | 22:26 UTC | Tornado Watch | MOB |
| 22:07 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB |
| 22:26 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | MOB |
| 22:38 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | MOB |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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 radar
The Mobile radar (KMOB), 136 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:12 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:15 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 3 Nw Castleberry | Conecuh, AL | A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN 3 MILES NORTHWEST OF CASTLEBERRY AND MOVED EAST NORTHEAST...CROSSING US 31 ABOUT 2 MILES NORTH OF THE TOWN...BEFORE ENDING ALONG CR 85 JUST SOUTH OF THE NYMPH COMMUNITY. TWO HOMES WERE HEAVILY DAMA |
| 22:21 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Castleberry | Conecuh, AL | TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN WITH SOME STRUCTURAL DAMAGE INCLUDING DAMAGE TO A HOME AND A SHED. |
| 22:21 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Sw Evergreen | Conecuh, AL | USA METEOROLOGY STUDENTS REPORT TREES DOWN ON HIGHWAY 31 JUST SOUTHWEST OF EVERGREEN. |
| 22:39 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 10 E Evergreen | Conecuh, AL | TREES DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 84 BETWEEN HERBERT AND THE COVINGTON COUNTY LINE. |
| 22:51 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 12 Nw Andalusia | Covington, AL | USA METEOROLOGY STUDENTS REPORT TREES DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 55 IN NORTHWEST COVINGTON COUNTY. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 14, 2007
13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 14 | 10:10 AM CDT | EF0 | Marion, MS | 0.3 | 30 | $1,000 | ||
| April 14 | 10:35 AM CDT | EF0 | Jones, MS | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| April 14 | 11:41 AM CDT | EF1 | Forrest, MS | 0.5 | 50 | $200,000 | ||
| April 14 | 1:33 PM CDT | EF1 | Monroe, AL | 1.1 | 200 | $750,000 | ||
| April 14 | 4:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Crenshaw, AL | 0.5 | 40 | $100,000 | ||
| April 14 | 6:11 PM CDT | EF1 | Bullock, AL | 3.2 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| April 14 | 5:05 PM PDT | EF0 | Santa Clara, CA | 0.2 | 30 | $1,000 | ||
| April 14 | 7:05 PM CDT | EF1 | Dale, AL | 5.8 | 150 | $250,000 | ||
| April 14 | 9:45 PM EDT | EF0 | Calhoun, GA | 0.8 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| April 14 | 10:30 PM EDT | EF1 | Lee, GA | 2.5 | 100 | $500,000 | ||
| April 14 | 1:23 AM EDT | EF1 | Dodge, GA | 4.5 | 100 | 2 | $350,000 | |
| April 14 | 1:45 AM EDT | EF2 | Laurens, GA | 6.0 | 200 | 3 | $400,000 | |
| April 14 | 1:50 AM EDT | EF0 | Laurens, GA | 5.9 | 50 | $50,000 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.