EF1 tornado, Rockledge to Sardis City, 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 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 29, 2014

Touchdown

1:17 AM CDT (06:17 UTC)

Lifted

1:27 AM CDT (06:27 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

6.3 miles (10.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Etowah County

Touchdown point

34.090, -86.155

Lift-off point

34.178, -86.132

Record number

1404290017-01

259 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 160 mph.

• house shifted off its cinder block foundation. no anchoring.
• single-family home shifted off its foundation. no anchoring.
• roof thrown back toward southwest.
• 2 trees uprooted in divergent pattern

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

A large scale severe weather event began Saturday, April 26 and ended Wednesday, April 30th, producing several waves of severe weather from the Central Plains eastward through the Deep South, and across a significant portion of the eastern United States. Strong and violent tornadoes, very large hail, flash flooding, and damaging straight line winds accompanied this dynamic storm system. The most tornadoes occurred across the Deep South as the system moved into Mississippi and Alabama on Monday, April 28th. Supercell thunderstorms developed during the afternoon over eastern Mississippi and northwest Alabama in the warm sector well ahead of a cold front. The activity slowly spread east and southeast overnight, with this wave of severe storms ending early Tuesday morning. Storms redeveloped late Tuesday afternoon and moved into Central Alabama. A large area of rainfall across the northern Gulf Coast limited the amount of instability across the area, and storms remained below severe limits. The last wave of severe weather occurred early Wednesday morning across the south as an isolated storm produced large hail, as the system finally pulled east of the area.

A short-lived tornado touched down along Egypt Road near Vaughn Lane snapping a few trees. The tornado tracked north-northeast and intensified near Shady Grove Road where a single-wide manufactured home was destroyed. Near the intersection of Mountainboro Road and Carlisle Cut Off, a house was shifted off its foundation, but the house itself sustained only minor roof damage. A wood barn in a field was also heavily damaged. Just south of Lawson Gap Road, several trailers were damaged with one losing its roof and portion of its exterior walls. Trees were snapped or uprooted on the west side of Mountainboro Road. The tornado was at its peak intensity along Mountainboro Road between Shady Grove Road and Lawson Gap Road, with maximum winds between 90 and 100 mph. The tornado continued north, causing additional damage along Skyhaven Drive, where a two-story house lost a portion of its roof covering. Several trees were snapped or uprooted around this location as well. To the north, off Douglas Drive, a manufactured single-wide home lost most of its roof, its entire garage/car port and a good portion of one exterior wall. The tornado crossed U.S. Highway 431, snapping several trees near the intersection of Highway 205. Between Cox Gap Road and Gaines Street several large trees were snapped or uprooted and displayed a convergent path toward the center line of the tornado. The tornado crossed Sardis Road snapping a few trees near the intersection of Sardis Cut Off Road before lifting.

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

26 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:51 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:34 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:01 UTC and running to 07:40 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.

Albertville (BFZ), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:17 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.