EF1 tornado, Sheffield to Old Bethel, Alabama, July 14, 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

July 14, 2015

Touchdown

6:00 PM CDT (23:00 UTC)

Lifted

6:13 PM CDT (23:13 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

9.1 miles (14.7 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Colbert County

Touchdown point

34.769, -87.708

Lift-off point

34.657, -87.622

Record number

1507141700-01

65 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 100 mph.

• damage caused by tree falling on house
• fell across highway 20 and was facing north
• trees fell on house, fell west

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 (QLCS) dropped southward into the Tennessee Valley during the afternoon and evening hours. The airmass was very unstable, and despite low to moderate low to mid level wind shear, multiple swaths of damaging winds occurred. Within these pockets of winds, a few weak and mostly short-lived tornadoes developed. The most concentrated wind and tornado damage occurred in portions of Lauderdale, Colbert, and Lawrence Counties including the Shoals region of Florence, Sheffield, Muscle Shoals, Town Creek and Courtland. Other short-lived tornadoes occurred in Madison, Morgan and Cullman Counties. Unfortunately, one person was killed by a falling tree near West Point in Cullman County.

A tornado touched down along the south riverbank of the Tennessee River in Sheffield. The tornado initially produced substantial tree damage along Alabama Avenue along with minor roof and structural damage to several homes. The tornado then moved southeast uprooting or snapping numerous hardwood trees in the residential neighborhoods of Sheffield. Here many homes were damaged by falling trees or flying debris. Several homeowners said they witnessed seeing a funnel cloud approaching from the north. The most substantial damage was noted along Little Rock Avenue where power poles were snapped or pushed over. Many residents were without power due to the storm.||The tornado narrowed somewhat as it moved southeast toward Tuscumbia. Damage was noted to trees just east of the Helen Keller Hospital complex. Power lines were broken and transmission lines were bent over along Elm Street. A large light tower was completely destroyed at Deshler High School. The tornado continued to produce sporadic damage as it approached Highway 43 rolling over an un-anchored building and producing minor damage at a car dealership. The tornado crossed Highway 72 Alternate with mainly tree damage noted before it apparently lifted along Spring Valley Road.

A tornado touched down in the southeast corner of Colbert County in the LaGrange community. The tornado touched down along Poplar Creek Loop west of County Road 48 (County Line Road). Here, numerous trees were uprooted or had large sections of branches snapped. The tornado continued to move southeast crossing County Line Road. Damage to mainly softwood trees was noted along Wolf Springs Road as the tornado straddled the Bring Crossing into Lawrence County.

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:00 UTC and running to 01:26 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 Enhanced Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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.

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:00 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

9 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.