EF1 tornado, Mitchell Xrd to Marvyn, Alabama, April 10, 2009

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 10, 2009

Touchdown

8:26 PM CDT (01:26 UTC)

Lifted

9:04 PM CDT (02:04 UTC)

On the ground

38 minutes

Path length

25.5 miles (41.1 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$210,000

Counties

Macon, Tallapoosa and Lee counties

Touchdown point

32.594, -85.764

Lift-off point

32.439, -85.367

Record number

0904101926-01

A powerful spring storm system, including a deepening surface low and a strong cold front, brought widespread severe weather to central Alabama. Damaging wind gusts, large hail, and 8 tornadoes were reported across the area.

The tornado touched down south of the Beauregard community, just west of AL-51. It then traveled southeast for just over two miles, lifting near CR-42. The most significant damage occurred near CR-758, where a mobile home received damage, a few other structures suffered roof damage and several trees and power lines were either snapped off or were uprooted.

A long tracked tornado, which would eventually track into two other counties, first touched down on Happy Hollow Road just northwest of the Liberty City community, near the Tallapoosa and Macon County line. The tornado was in Tallapoosa County for less than two miles, and caused generally light damage.

The tornado that touched down near Liberty City in Tallapoosa County crossed into Macon County, and continued to travel southeast, staying just southwest of the Lee County line for most of its path. In Macon County, thousands of trees were either snapped off or uprooted along the damage path. A few mobile homes suffered varying degrees of damage, and one mobile home was knocked off its foundation. Several barns had their roofs partially removed, and several other structures suffered varying degrees of roof damage. Several homes and vehicles had windows broken out.

The tornado that had previously moved through Tallapoosa and Macon Counties completed its journey in Lee County. It entered Lee County near Lee Road 812 and Long Branch Creek. It traveled another 4.4 miles southeast, before finally lifting near the intersection of US-80 and AL-51, near the Marvyn community. Most of the path in Lee County was across rural forest or farm land, and damage was relatively minor.

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

41 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:45 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:41 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:16 UTC and running to 02:56 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:30 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.

Auburn Univ. (Am (AUB), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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 2009 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

63 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 64 of them

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.