EF2 tornado, Lewis Smith Lake to Crane Hill, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

March 1, 2007

Touchdown

3:45 PM CST (21:45 UTC)

Lifted

3:57 PM CST (21:57 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

9.6 miles (15.5 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

Counties

Winston and Cullman counties

Touchdown point

34.080, -87.250

Lift-off point

34.150, -87.111

Record number

0703011545-01

A powerful spring storm system brought an outbreak of tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail to Central Alabama.

A severe weather outbreak impacted much of the Southeast and lower and middle Mississippi Valleys producing numerous tornadoes, some of which were strong, large hail and damaging winds. However, the central Tennessee Valley was fortunate not to experience the most severe and widespread thunderstorm and tornado activity. Only one short tornado track entered portions of Cullman County during the late afternoon hours.|Strong low pressure moved northeast through northern Missouri into northeast Iowa, bringing a potent cold front through the southern states. Most severe weather parameters were in place along and ahead of this front, with the most concentrated activity across central Alabama and along the Gulf Coastal Plain from southern Alabama into much of central and southern Georgia.

The tornado touched down near the intersection of County Road 41 and County Road 62, about 2 miles north of Arley. It then tracked northeastward, crossed Smith Lake, crossed County Road 77, before it moved into Cullman County. Several homes and barns were damaged along the path. One chicken house was totally destroyed and two others sustained major damage. Numerous trees were either uprooted or snapped off.

Representatives from the National Weather Service in Birmingham conducted an aerial survey in Winston and Cullman Counties relating to storm damage reported during the March 1, 2007 tornado outbreak. It was determined that this damage was caused by an EF-2 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale with maximum estimated winds of 110-115 mph. The damage track extended 9.1 miles and was a maximum of 100 yards wide, but most of this occurred in Winston County.|The track extended less than 3/4 of a mile into extreme western Cullman County, north of County Road 141 and south of the Nesmith community. By the time the tornado reached Cullman County, it had weakened to a low-end EF-1 tornado, with estimated winds of 75 mph and a path width of 25 to 50 yards. The tornado was responsible only for tree damage within Cullman County before lifting around 3:57 pm CST.|

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:18 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:31 UTC and running to 23:31 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 20:06 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 Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:44 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

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.