EF0 tornado, (Hsv)Huntsville Jone to Triana, Alabama, July 14, 2015

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   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

EF0

Date

July 14, 2015

Touchdown

6:35 PM CDT (23:35 UTC)

Lifted

6:37 PM CDT (23:37 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Madison County

Touchdown point

34.611, -86.753

Lift-off point

34.601, -86.743

Record number

1507141735-01

42 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Debris from adjacent sign damage blown downwind in field.
• Fencing on corner of lot blown down
• fencing knocked out windows
• fencing and tool shed blown down

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 developed just southeast of Huntsville International Airport and twisted a metal billboard sing. The tornado proceeded southeast into the River Landing Subdivision, causing damage to several homes. A majority of the damage occurred to roofs and fences. This included missing shingles, and some gutters and siding were peeled back. Other damage to small plastic sheds was noted and large portions of fences were destroyed and lofted into surrounding homes. No damage to trees was noted because this was a fairly new subdivision.

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.

Huntsville/Madison (HSV), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:35 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.