EF1 tornado, Heflin to Abernathy, Alabama, May 11, 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

May 11, 2008

Touchdown

2:47 AM CDT (07:47 UTC)

Lifted

2:50 AM CDT (07:50 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.7 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Cleburne County

Touchdown point

33.646, -85.504

Lift-off point

33.644, -85.465

Record number

0805110147-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 111 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A strengthening low pressure system, and associated cold front, caused numerous severe thunderstorms and several tornadoes across Central Alabama.

The tornado touched down along the Talladega Scenic Drive just south of US Highway 78. It then moved along a slightly curved path until it crossed CR-79, and then tracked almost due east as it produced its most concentrated damage near SR-9. The tornado lifted near the end of Brockford Road in the vicinity of Shadow Lane, on the east side of the city of Heflin. Hundreds of trees were either snapped off or uprooted along the path. Eight homes were destroyed, and more than 40 others received significant damage.

The tornado touched down near Exit 205 along Interstate 20, or 5 miles east of Heflin, and traveled eastward. The tornado affected areas generally along CR-114 east of SR-46. The tornado lifted just west of the intersection of CR-114 and CR-62. Several homes were badly damaged and at least two had significant portions of their roofs blown off. Numerous trees were blown down or were snapped off along the path.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:39 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:02 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:31 UTC and running to 10:05 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:03 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.

Anniston (ANB), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:46 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

41 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.