EF1 tornado, Davistown, Alabama, April 3, 2007

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

April 3, 2007

Touchdown

11:33 PM CDT (04:33 UTC)

Lifted

11:35 PM CDT (04:35 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.1 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

34.536, -86.013

Lift-off point

34.514, -85.976

Record number

0704032233-01

A line of thunderstorms developed across the Mid Mississippi Valley during the afternoon hours and moved southeast into the Tennessee Valley during the overnight hours. After several cell mergers as the line moved into southern middle Tennessee, the line intensified and accelerated southeast across northern Alabama. Two tornadoes developed in the vicinity of mergers of the squall line with thunderstorms that developed ahead of the line.

This tornado formed three miles east of the Langston community, which is just south of the Tennessee River in southern Jackson County, and moved to the southeast before ending one mile southeast of the Macedonia community near the Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church. Most of the damage along its path was rated EF-0, except for a small area of EF-1 damage in Macedonia where maximum wind speeds were estimated to be 95 m.p.h. |About half a mile from the crossroads at Macedonia on County Road 38, the tornado did the most damage. Parts of a two-story family dwelling roof and siding were carried away, a couple century old harwood trees were uprooted, a large outbuilding was completely destroyed, and the roof was ripped off another nearby building. Some of the debris from this property was scattered more than half a mile away. At the Corinth Missionary Church windows were broken and fascia board was ripped from the main structure, while another smaller building on the church property was blown slighly off its foundation. Roofing shingles were ripped off Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church and parts of Macedonia school, where a communications tower was bent in half.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:14 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:38 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:05 UTC and running to 05:02 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 01:34 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 Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:34 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 2007 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.