Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2008
EF0 tornado, Paul to South, Alabama, May 15, 2008
From Paul to South, this EF0 tornado ran 15.0 miles across Conecuh and Covington counties on May 15, 2008, touching down at 12:17 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $175,000 of property damage.
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
- May 15, 2008
- Touchdown
- 12:17 PM CDT (17:17 UTC)
- Lifted
- 12:38 PM CDT (17:38 UTC)
- On the ground
- 21 minutes
- Path length
- 15.0 miles (24.1 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $175,000
- Counties
- Conecuh and Covington counties
- Touchdown point
- 31.326, -86.765
- Lift-off point
- 31.471, -86.579
- Record number
- 0805151117-01
The damage survey
2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry.
- Approximate beginning point of the Paul Tornado based on Storm Data.
- Approximate end point of the Paul Tornado based on Storm Data.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A weak tornado developed in the east part of Conecuh county and moved into the west part of Covington county. The tornado caused mostly tree damage with some structures damaged near the end of the track.
A weak tornado first touched down just west of Paul. The tornado moved northeast and passed just east of Cohassett. The tornado moved across U. S. Highway 84 at the Conecuh and Covington county line. This is a rural area and the only damage the tornado caused was to trees. Some of the trees landed across the rural roads and had to be moved before anyone could drive on the roads.
A weak tornado moved out of Conecuh county and into Covington county along U. S. Highway 84. The tornado moved northeast and tracked just west of Red Level where a tree fell on a house and caused major roof damage. The tornado then passed near the city of South where three homes and one mobile home were damaged. An old volunteer fire department building was also damaged. The tornado then dissipated. In addition to the structures that were damaged, many trees were blown down along the path of the tornado.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
26 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:51 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:30 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 14:00 UTC and running to 18:18 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:00 UTC | 18:18 UTC | Tornado Watch | MOB |
| 16:01 UTC | 16:16 UTC | Tornado Warning | MOB |
| 16:36 UTC | 17:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB |
| 16:51 UTC | 17:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | MOB |
| 17:17 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB |
| 17:30 UTC | 17:40 UTC | Tornado Warning | MOB |
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 17:24 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 air that afternoon
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.
Eglin AFB/Valpar, FL (KVPS), 00:00Z
6.7 hours after it, 103 km from the path. May 16, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 61 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -212 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 80 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1108 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 142 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 189 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.6 K/km
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:54 UTC | TORNADO | Andalusia | Covington, AL | TORNADO REPORTED ON THE GROUND JUST WEST OF ANDALUSIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL |
| 17:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | South | Covington, AL | TREES DOWN AND ROOF DAMAGE TO A STORE. |
| 18:16 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Henderson | Pike, AL | TROY POLICE DEPARTMENT REPORTED A FUNNEL CLOUD IN HENDERSON AT COUNTY ROAD 2246 HEADING TOWARDS TROY. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 15, 2008
13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 15 | 4:00 AM CDT | EF0 | Jasper, TX | 0.3 | 25 | $10,000 | ||
| May 15 | 4:15 AM CDT | EF1 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 4.9 | 50 | 2 | $100,000 | |
| May 15 | 4:25 AM CDT | EF0 | Beauregard Parish, LA | 0.3 | 25 | $5,000 | ||
| May 15 | 6:12 AM CDT | EF0 | Vermilion Parish, LA | 0.3 | 25 | $35,000 | ||
| May 15 | 6:15 AM CDT | EF2 | Lafayette Parish, LA | 7.6 | 200 | $400,000 | ||
| May 15 | 6:35 AM CDT | EF0 | Lafayette Parish, LA | 0.7 | 25 | $100,000 | ||
| May 15 | 6:35 AM CDT | EF0 | Vermilion Parish, LA | 5.5 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| May 15 | 6:40 AM CDT | EF1 | Lafayette Parish, LA | 0.8 | 100 | $3.0 million | ||
| May 15 | 6:55 AM CDT | EF1 | Saint Martin Parish, LA | 3.8 | 50 | 1 | $1.5 million | |
| May 15 | 9:00 AM CDT | EF1 | Saint Tammany Parish, LA | 5.0 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| May 15 | 9:20 AM CDT | EF1 | Washington Parish, LA | 2.5 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| May 15 | 10:05 AM CDT | EF1 | Lamar, MS | 15.4 | 600 | $710,000 | ||
| May 15 | 10:15 AM CDT | EF1 | Forrest, MS | 1.3 | 150 | $80,000 |
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.