EF1 tornado, Marigold to Trimble, Alabama, May 8, 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 8, 2008

Touchdown

2:00 PM CDT (19:00 UTC)

Lifted

2:07 PM CDT (19:07 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

3.3 miles (5.3 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$120,000

Counties

Walker and Cullman counties

Touchdown point

33.972, -87.183

Lift-off point

33.975, -87.127

Record number

0805081300-01

A strong storm system and associated cold front swept through Central Alabama, causing numerous severe thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes.

A quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) produced no less than five tornadoes and damaging thunderstorm winds across northern Alabama during the late morning through mid afternoon hours.

This tornado touched down on Blooming Grove Road, about six tenths of a mile south of CR-43 near the Marylee Community. From there, it moved almost due east, crossing CR-43 and Smith Lake. Along its path in Walker County, the tornado blew down or snapped off hundreds of trees, damaged or destroyed at least 6 chicken houses, and destroyed at least 5 boat houses at the Euskin Point Marina on Smith Lake.

A tornado with winds up to 100 mph continued a track out of Walker County on Smith Lake. Several trees were snapped and uprooted. A roof was partially torn off of a chicken house. The tornado lifted after nearly a 3/4 mile path, but then re-developed just a few miles further northeast near Sulpher Springs.

A tornado touched down again just east of Sulpher Springs tracking into the Trimble community before lifting. The tornado uprooted or snapped several large trees. Some trees damaged apartments and campers in this area. Another tornado touched down a few more miles northeast on the east side of Cullman.

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

55 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:05 UTC, 55 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:45 UTC and running to 21:28 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 15:39 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.

Cullman/Folsom_field_arpt (3A1), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:01 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

28 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.