EF1 tornado, Leeds, Alabama, February 26, 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

February 26, 2008

Touchdown

3:42 AM CST (09:42 UTC)

Lifted

3:45 AM CST (09:45 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.8 miles (4.5 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

33.549, -86.565

Lift-off point

33.542, -86.517

Record number

0802260342-01

An advancing cold front moving through the state caused widespread wind damage and a few tornadoes across Central Alabama, especially in the eastern half of the state.

After investigating a very complex pattern of widespread damage with both a ground survey team and an aerial survey, surveys teams concluded that a portion of the damage in the city of Leeds was caused by a tornado. The tornado touched down east of Interstate 20 near Henry Ellen Rd, where trees falling on a mobile home caused one fatality to an elderly woman. The tornado tracked east-southeastward, roughly between the railroad tracks and US-78 towards the city center. There was significant roof damage to several buildings along Highway 78 from Leeds City Park in the downtown area, windows were blown out of several businesses, buildings were partially de-roofed, and the brick facade of one building was collapsed. The old rock wool warehouse facility received major irreparable damage. The most concentrated and significant material damage occured near Leeds High School. Fencing around the girls softball field was mangled and twisted, and a large batting catch was overturned and rolled. Tall wooden utility poles with field lighting were snapped half way up. Several homes just to the east of the athletic fields received significant damage. Over the path of this tornado, an estimated 30 to 40 homes and 20 to 30 businesses were damaged or destroyed. Several hundred trees were either snapped off or were uprooted along the path. Aside from the one fatality, no other injuries were reported.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:28 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:44 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 06:10 UTC and running to 10:49 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:47 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.

Birmingham Municipal (BHM), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:41 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

7 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.