EF1 tornado, Old Bethel to Wolf Spgs, Alabama, June 9, 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

June 9, 2014

Touchdown

8:30 PM CDT (01:30 UTC)

Lifted

8:35 PM CDT (01:35 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

5.9 miles (9.4 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Lawrence and Colbert counties

Touchdown point

34.582, -87.561

Lift-off point

34.609, -87.463

Record number

1406091930-01

30 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 squall line rapidly moved east-northeast through northern Alabama during the evening and overnight hours. Wind damage was reported along the line, along with one tornado which tracked from Colbert into Lawrence Counties.

A tornado touched down Monday evening near the intersection of Clement Road and LaGrange road in the LaGrange community in southeast Colbert County. Here, several hardwood trees were either snapped or uprooted. A large outbuilding was completely destroyed and another smaller one sustained significant damage. Several hardwood trees were sheared off very near the base along LaGrange Road. Damage here was consistent with winds of at least 100 mph.||The tornado moved east-northeast crossing Logan Lane and Waldrep Loop. Minor damage, mainly lost shingles, was noted to several homes with one home losing an awning. Numerous trees had large limbs snapped or twisted in this area.||The tornado then produced sporadic tree damage in the forested area between Waldrep Loop and Country Line Road (CR 48). As the tornado crossed CR 48, substantial tree damage was noted at a homestead. Large hardwood trees, some greater than 2 feet in diameter, were snapped or uprooted. A utility pole was also snapped near the ground. The damage was consistent with at least 105 mph here.

A tornado tracked from Colbert County into western Lawrence County along Wolf Springs Road (CR 236). A few trees were uprooted along CR 236. Further east-northeast, branches were snapped sporadically along County Roads 584 and 235 before the tornado lifted on County Road 140 just west of Highway 157.

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 23:36 UTC and running to 06:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:42 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 Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:32 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

2 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.