EF2 tornado, Dawson to Kaolin, Alabama, April 29, 2014

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 29, 2014

Touchdown

1:06 AM CDT (06:06 UTC)

Lifted

1:27 AM CDT (06:27 UTC)

On the ground

21 minutes

Path length

11.7 miles (18.8 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

DeKalb County

Touchdown point

34.349, -85.840

Lift-off point

34.496, -85.737

Record number

1404290006-01

203 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• roof thrown back toward southwest.
• 2 trees uprooted in divergent pattern
• Two commerical structures were damaged. At first building, roof collapsed -- bay doors appeared to be opened during storm. At second building, a bay door was blown in, leading to exterior wall/roof damage. No other damage was seen around this location -- hence the decision that this was related to straight-line thunderstorm winds.
• Damage to roof of chicken houses

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

A tornado outbreak occurred during the late afternoon and evening across the central Tennessee Valley on the 28th. Several cyclic supercells produced tornadoes, some of which were strong. Very heavy rainfall occurred in some areas as well. In particular, up to 5 inches fell in just a few hours which led to severe flash flooding in Valley Head.|An additional round of thunderstorms late in the day/evening of the 29th produced a few reports of damaging winds and hail.

A tornadic cyclic supercell produced another tornado in the community of Dawson along County Road (CR) 20. Numerous trees were snapped and/or uprooted in this area. The tornado tracked north-northeast snapping additional trees along CR 199, and damaging a mobile home. Another home received minor structural damage along CR 196. The tornado fell a wide swath of trees before it crossed Highway 57. Here it reached maximum intensity (EF-2) with winds of 115 mph, nearly destroying a small home. Several large farm buildings were significantly damaged near the intersection of CR 204 and 57. The tornado nearly paralleled the highway as it tracked further north. Another home sustained roof damage along CR 57 as well. The tornado began a weakening phase north of the intersection with CR 204, with mainly tree damage noted north of that location. The tornado finally lifted just north of the intersection of CR 57 and 109.

A tornadic cyclic supercell produced yet another tornado along County Road (CR) 209 where mainly branches were snapped. The tornado lifted northeast snapping additional branches before strengthening as it approached CR 52. Here, severe hardwood trees were snapped or uprooted near a farmstead. Additional trees were snapped and/or uprooted along a wide swath all along CR 88. The tornado may have weakened or even lifted very briefly as it crossed the Highway 35 intersection near Dugout Valley Road/CR 97 west-norhtwest of Fort Payne. The tornado intensified once again as it tracked norhteast, uprooting and snapping more trees. The tornado reached peak intensity with estimated winds of 115 mph and a path width of 200 yards near the intersection with Chisenhall Road. At this location, the tornado rolled and separated a mobile home from its frame, peeled roofing back from another mobile home, and snapped many trees in a forested area just northeast of the intersection. It continued to track along CR 97, but weakened significantly, causing mostly tree damage or very minor structural damage to single family homes (two homes sustained minor roof damage or broken windows just north of the Chisenhall/CR 97 intersection). The tornado narrowed significantly before lifting along CR 609 just north of the intersection with CR 27.

A tornado touched down south of Mentone along the Desoto Parkway (CR 89) just south of the intersection with CR 165. Here, several large cedar trees were snapped. The tornado moved northeast, paralleling the western side of CR 165. Mainly tree damage was noted in this area, with minor structural damage to barns and outbuildings. Several stands of old growth hardwoods were damaged here.||The tornado seemed to weaken briefly with only minor tree damage noted near downtown Mentone. Further up the slopes of Lookout Mountain, the tornado strengthened again to EF-1 intensity with speeds up to 105 mph, with sporadic swaths of hardwood trees snapped or uprooted, all along the eastern side of CR 89, before lifting just inside the state line.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:00 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:11 UTC and running to 07:36 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. The outlook in force was issued at 06:07 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.

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:03 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 2014 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.