EF2 tornado, Chehaw to Notasulga, Alabama, April 11, 2013

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

April 11, 2013

Touchdown

8:34 PM CDT (01:34 UTC)

Lifted

8:44 PM CDT (01:44 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

5.1 miles (8.2 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Counties

Macon and Lee counties

Touchdown point

32.533, -85.737

Lift-off point

32.597, -85.693

Record number

1304111934-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• Damage to a free standing garage. It lost most of its roof covering and had a partial wall collapse. The main house had threshold of visible damage. Several dozen softwood trees were snapped or uprooted. A shed building behind the main house was overturned. Width was no more than 150 yards.
• Minor injury. Significant loss of roof structure. Multiple trees snapped and uprooted. Windows blown out on both sides of house. Boat in yard lifted and thrown at least 150 yards. Width about 100-150 yards.
• Also, an outbuilding lost its roof at this location.
• Mobile home lost its roof. SF residence last <20% of roof. Lots of softwood trees snapped. Width was 150-200 yards.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Severe thunderstorms ahead of and along a cold front moved across Central Alabama on Thursday, April 11th. Storms along the cold front formed into a quasi-linear convective system, causing wind damage and producing seven tornadoes across the area. Ahead of the line, strong daytime heating and increasing instabilities coupled with strong diffluence aloft created prime conditions for discrete thunderstorms to form. These storms caused wind damage across portions of northeast Central Alabama during the late afternoon.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed the damage in Macon and Lee Counties and have determined that the damage was due to an EF-2 tornado. Wind speeds in Macon County are estimated at 120 mph. The tornado initially touched down along St. John���s Church Road at Saint John���s Church. Several tree branches were damaged along with several overturned grave markers. The tornado continued north-northeast crossing Hardwich Street where several outbuildings sustained damage, and County Road 39 and State Road 14 where several additonal homes and outbuildings were damaged or destroyed. On County Road 39, one brick home sustained major roofing loss and window glass breakage. One minor injury was caused from flying glass. Also in the same area, one mobile home had significant damage while another was completely destroyed. The tornado crossed State Road 14, strengthening to its maximum intensity. It significantly damaged a well-built two-story home, with considerable loss of roof material, one outer wall completely destroyed and another outer wall significantly damaged. Of note, the family of five took cover in an interior closet on the lowest level which kept them from injury. The tornado continued northeastward where it damaged an additional outbuilding pavilion, and crossed into Lee County, lifting along Roxana Road.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:45 UTC and running to 03:00 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 01:01 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.

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 2013 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

13 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.