EF1 tornado, Peachburg, Alabama, April 19, 2015

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 19, 2015

Touchdown

7:19 AM CDT (12:19 UTC)

Lifted

7:21 AM CDT (12:21 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.9 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bullock County

Touchdown point

32.159, -85.629

Lift-off point

32.168, -85.612

Record number

1504190619-01

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• first damage 040 single pecan tree Start Point
• pine tree snapped in the direction of 280. other pine trees snapped north. hardwood in the distance snapped north. Max width at this location approximately 150 yards.
• mature pine tree trunk snapped at the base. hardwood tree beyond this pine tree has mangled large limbs.
• will have to correct the direction of the image on the previous.

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

A deepening short wave moving through the southern Plains States produced widespread lift across Alabama during the morning hours on April 19th. At the same time, a surface warm front lifted northward across south Alabama and pulled warm and unstable air into central Alabama. Several tornadoes formed in the warm sector south of the warm front. Later that day and into the overnight hours, a cold front approached Alabama from the west and triggered severe thunderstorms development, mainly across the northern portions of central Alabama.

The tornado touched down in a pecan grove on Peachburg Road uprooting a mature healthy pecan tree. It traveled northeast paralleling Peachburg Road, snapping and uprooting numerous pines and hardwoods. It continued along a utility right of way and partially wooded land before crossing Peachburg Road again, and lifted just after crossing the road. No structures were affected by this tornado. Estimated peak wind was 95 mph.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:15 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:57 UTC and running to 14:55 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 06:03 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.

Troy Municipal (TOI), 50 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:18 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 2015 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.