EF1 tornado, Hobgood Siding to Cotton Town, Alabama, April 4, 2008

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 4, 2008

Touchdown

8:03 AM CDT (13:03 UTC)

Lifted

8:10 AM CDT (13:10 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

6.5 miles (10.5 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Colbert County

Touchdown point

34.693, -87.621

Lift-off point

34.654, -87.482

Record number

0804040703-01

Numerous strong to severe thunderstorms developed ahead of a cold front across northern Alabama during the morning of April 4th. Scattered wind damage and isolated tornadoes impacted the area.

A storm survey was completed in Colbert County Alabama. A tornado was determined to have touched down about two miles east of Tuscumbia along Highway 20 at the Colbert County Road Department. A building was heavily damaged at the road department. Intially, the tornado produced EF-1 damage for one half of a mile along Highway 72. Up to a 30000 square foot portion of a roof at the Whitesell distribution center was ripped apart by the tornado. The tornado maintained a maximum speed of 85 mph for approximately 1/2 of a mile before weakening as it crossed Highway 72. Its path width while maintaining EF-1 strength was 40 yards.||The Tornado then produced EF-0 damage the remainder of its 6.5 mile path. The width of the tornado was 20 yards, while an EF-0. The tornado abruptly dissipated near Cottontown, Alabama.||Rear flank downdraft winds likely produced damage to adjacent areas near the tornado including a porch being uplifted at a residence.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 07:46 UTC and running to 15:02 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:54 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 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), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:01 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 2008 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

14 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.