Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2007
EF0 tornado, Blue Spgs, Alabama, September 21, 2007
This EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Barbour County on September 21, 2007, touching down at 5:34 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- September 21, 2007
- Touchdown
- 5:34 PM CDT (22:34 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:35 PM CDT (22:35 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.4 miles (0.6 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Barbour County
- Touchdown point
- 31.662, -85.573
- Lift-off point
- 31.665, -85.578
- Record number
- 0709211634-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Tropical Depression #10 spawned an isolated tornado.
A Sheriff's Deputy reported a tornado near the intersection of CR 23 and CR 8, just southeast of Clio. The Deputy observed debris, but there was no subsequent damage found.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:00 UTC and running to 03:11 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:00 UTC | 03:11 UTC | Tornado Watch | BMX |
| 22:41 UTC | 23:05 UTC | Tornado Warning | BMX |
| 03:11 UTC | 04:34 UTC | Tornado Watch | BMX |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 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 surface observations
Fort Rucker (HEY), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:53 UTC | 75 | 74 | 4 kt | 1010.2 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:34 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Sse Clio | Barbour, AL | SHERIFFS DEPUTY FOLLOWED A TORNADO FROM THE INTERSECTION OF CR 23 AND CR 8...ALL THE WAY TO THE PIKE AND BARBOUR COUNTY LINE NEAR SR 10. IT APPEARED THE TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND THE ENTIRE WAY WITH LITTLE TO NO DAMAGE R |
| 22:40 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 1 S Clio | Barbour, AL | SHERIFFS DEPUTY FOLLOWING A POTENTIAL TORNADO NEAR CLIO. NO DAMAGE REPORTS AT THIS TIME. |
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 September 21, 2007
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 21 | 4:45 AM EDT | EF0 | Ware, GA | 0.6 | 100 |
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.