EF1 tornado, Prescott to Riverside, Alabama, May 3, 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

May 3, 2009

Touchdown

2:15 PM CDT (19:15 UTC)

Lifted

2:16 PM CDT (19:16 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

County

St. Clair County

Touchdown point

33.541, -86.459

Lift-off point

33.545, -86.443

Record number

0905031315-01

A cold front dipping into the Tennessee Valley helped spark strong to severe thunderstorms for several days, with large hail, damaging winds, and several tornadoes.

A brief tornado touched down near the intersection of Sequoyah Road and Cherokee Road, near the Stewarts Crossroads Community. Several trees were blown down along the short path. At least 10 homes suffered minor to moderate damage associated with the fallen trees.

The tornado touched down in Pleasant Grove along CR-27. It then tracked northeastward and generally paralleled CR-27 and Wolf Creek. The tornado crossed Interstate 20 near the intersection of US-231 in Pell City, and continued northeastward all the way to the Coosa River just beyond the River Ranch Road Community. Numerous trees and power poles were snapped off along the path. Many fallen trees and power poles landed on homes and outbuildings.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:02 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 16:35 UTC and running to 20:51 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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.

Birmingham Municipal (BHM), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:15 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 2009 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.