Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2009
EF0 tornado, Java, Alabama, December 14, 2009
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Coffee County on December 14, 2009, touching down at 4:20 PM CST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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
- December 14, 2009
- Touchdown
- 4:20 PM CST (22:20 UTC)
- Lifted
- 4:21 PM CST (22:21 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Coffee County
- Touchdown point
- 31.539, -85.795
- Lift-off point
- 31.539, -85.794
- Record number
- 0912141620-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Severe thunderstorms spawned two F0 tornadoes, caused wind damage, and several reports of flooding.
An F0 tornado touched down briefly in an open field near the intersection of County Road 107 and State Highway 51. No damage was reported.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
9 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:11 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:23 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Flood Warning | TAE |
| 15:09 UTC | 16:00 UTC | Dense Fog Advisory | TAE |
| 20:35 UTC | 00:07 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | TAE |
| 22:11 UTC | 22:23 UTC | Tornado Warning | TAE |
| 22:36 UTC | 04:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | TAE |
| 04:35 UTC | 12:30 UTC | Flood Warning | TAE |
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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:32 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Sw Dozier | Crenshaw, AL | SEVERAL TREES DOWN ON POWER LINES ALONG HWY 29 NEAR THE COVINGTON AND CRENSHAW COUNTY LINES. |
| 22:20 UTC | TORNADO | 7 Sw Ariton | Coffee, AL | TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED A TORNADO SOUTHWEST OF ARITON, AL ALONG COUNTY ROAD 51. |
| 22:25 UTC | TORNADO | Rocky Head | Dale, AL | EMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED DAMAGE IN ROCKY HEAD WITH DOWNED TREES. |
| 22:40 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 4 Ese Brantley | Crenshaw, AL | POWELL ROAD CLOSED DUE TO WATER COVERING THE ROADWAY. |
| 22:40 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 5 Sw Rutledge | Crenshaw, AL | SWANNER BRIDGE ROAD CLOSED DUE TO WATER COVERING THE ROADWAY. |
| 22:40 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 7 Sse Brantley | Crenshaw, AL | LOWER BOZEMAN ROAD CLOSED DUE TO WATER COVERING THE ROADWAY. |
| 22:55 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 3 Ne Abbeville | Henry, AL | WATER COVERING HIGHWAY 46 AT ABBIE CREEK. |
| 23:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Sw Abbeville | Henry, AL | TREE DOWN ON AUTOMOBILE ON STATE HIGHWAY 27 SOUTHWEST OF ABBEVILLE. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of December 14, 2009
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 14 | 4:25 PM CST | EF0 | Dale, AL | 0.1 | 50 |
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.