EF1 tornado, Abbeville to Hatcher, Alabama, March 1, 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

March 1, 2007

Touchdown

1:52 PM CST (19:52 UTC)

Lifted

2:38 PM CST (20:38 UTC)

On the ground

46 minutes

Path length

30.8 miles (49.6 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$11 million

Counties

Henry, Clay and Quitman counties

Touchdown point

31.464, -85.375

Lift-off point

31.780, -85.040

Record number

0703011352-01

Severe thunderstorms developed ahead of a warm front over the Florida Panhandle and moved northeast across southeast Alabama and into extreme southwest Georgia during the afternoon hours of March 1. The strongest tornado, classified an EF-4, killed nine and injured 50 in Enterprise, Alabama.

Severe thunderstorms developed during the afternoon of March 1 ahead of advancing warm front across southwest Georgia, producing several reports of wind damage. Later that evening into the predawn hours of March 2, a squall line formed ahead of a cold front, with several reports of wind damage and tornadoes across portions of southwest and south central Georgia. One of the tornadoes tore through a mobile home park just north of Newton, killing six and injuring three.

After the EF-1 tornado crossed into western Henry County from eastern Dale County, it traveled northeast causing sporadic tree damage along County Roads 7 and 40. It then tore through the Bethlehem community, and damaged 51 mobile homes and destroyed 28 others. Two persons were injured when the tornado damaged their mobile home. The tornado overturned a semi on State Road 10 before lifting. The tornado descended two miles southwest of the community of Otho along County Road 97. It destroyed 14 homes and damaged 27 others in Otho. Numerous trees and utility poles were also blown down there and in the Stonebridge subdivision. The tornado exited the northeast part of the county at Lake Eufaula. Henry County was declared a federal disaster area.

After crossing from Alabama across Lake Eufaula, the tornado damaged several homes along Lakeview Drive, Macedonia Road, and Pataula Heights Lane. The tornado then approached Pataula Shores Circle and crossed State Highway 39. It snapped or uprooted many pines in and around Mt Zion Church Road, Frontage Trail and Hatcher Road before crossing the Clay-Quitman county line. |

The tornado moved from Clay County into Quitman County along Hatcher Road before it lifted. Numerous trees were snapped.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:50 UTC and running to 01:45 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 16:46 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.

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

42 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.