EF1 tornado, Pointer Quarters to Cross Key, Alabama, February 20, 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

February 20, 2014

Touchdown

8:45 PM CST (02:45 UTC)

Lifted

9:00 PM CST (03:00 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

10.7 miles (17.2 km)

Path width

450 yards (411 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Lawrence and Limestone counties

Touchdown point

34.689, -87.259

Lift-off point

34.822, -87.169

Record number

1402202045-01

113 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

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

A quasi-linear convective system rolled across the region during the evening and overnight hours of the 20th into the 21st producing eight tornadoes in north Alabama and southern middle Tennessee and numerous reports of wind damage.

A tornado touched down along County Road 388 in northern Lawrence County. Here, large limbs were broken as the tornado was initially weak and disorganized. The tornado began to strengthen as it lifted northeast and crossed County Road 400. Here, a swath of hardwood trees were uprooted with a few trees snapped. The tornado then crossed the Tennessee River into Limestone County.

The tornado tracked across the Tennessee River from Lawrence County at Bay Hill Drive at the marina on the northern end of the Tennessee River in Limestone County. The marina sustained minor damage and several of the condos and homes here had minor structural damage and several of the condos and homes here had minor structural damage. Trees were snapped and uprooted here as well. Utility poles were snapped along Snake road as the tornado strengthened to EF-1 intensity with wind speeds up to 105 mph.||The tornado moved northeast and snapped multiple trees as it crossed Wright road. Utility poles were also snapped here. The peak wind was estimated at 105 mph. A manufactured home was damaged along Wright road just south of highway 72 and a utility building was also destroyed. Clements High School sustained minor damage to athletic fields.||Homes sustained minor damage along Allison Loop road and Cox road, mainly minor roof uplift and loss of shingles). The tornado continued to move northeast and crossed Blue Springs Road. A large number of hardwood trees were snapped at the base here and power poles were also snapped near the ground. Several homes sustained damage when the trees fell on top of the homes. A car was also crunched in this location. The tornado then crossed the Elk River as it uprooted trees along Curtis road. The tornado then apparently lifted.

A tornado touched down along Section Line road just east of highway 99 in the Cartwright community. Initially the tornado was relatively weak snapping small limbs on softwood trees along Harris Loop Road. Power poles were also were also snapped in this location. Estimated winds in this area were roughly 100 mph. A home along Section Line Road also received minor roof uplift and loss of shingles. As the tornado continued to move east-northeast, additional tree damage was noted along Easter Ferry road and Davis Lane. The tornado apparently lifted along the hilltops just west of Witty Mills 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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:51 UTC and running to 04:42 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 01:00 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), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:45 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

33 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.