EF1 tornado, Capps to Murphy Station, 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

8:46 AM CDT (13:46 UTC)

Lifted

8:53 AM CDT (13:53 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

2.1 miles (3.4 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Henry County

Touchdown point

31.514, -85.311

Lift-off point

31.530, -85.281

Record number

1504190746-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Oak trunks and branches snapped at box car tip over point
• oak trunks and branches snapped at box car tip over
• 4 more cars tipped over approx 100 yards north of other cars. Trees lean/fell to NNE, but one large oak uprooted/fell eastward near northern edge of path. Also a metal roof from an old shed blew east here as well, indicating rotation.
• Trees fell perpendicular to trees across road. Damage path about 350 yards

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

A line of strong to severe thunderstorms moved across the region on April 19th, bringing with it tornadoes, straight line wind damage, and significant flash flooding across portions of southeast Alabama.

A short EF1 tornado track was surveyed just southwest of Abbeville, AL with max winds estimated at 110 mph. Eight railroad cars were flipped off their tracks along Alabama Highway 173 just south of a pulpwood plant. Otherwise, damage was confined to trees on the remainder of the path. A media article reported that it would cost around $1 million to turn the railroad cars upright again.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS TAE issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:36 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:57 UTC and running to 15:39 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 12:55 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.

Dothan Municipal (DHN), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:46 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.