EF1 tornado, Brooksville to Enon, 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

6:59 PM CDT (23:59 UTC)

Lifted

7:05 PM CDT (00:05 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

4.9 miles (7.9 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Morgan and Cullman counties

Touchdown point

34.355, -86.837

Lift-off point

34.306, -86.775

Record number

1507141759-01

24 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 90 mph.

• pine tree snapped. another tree toppled toward wnw
• Evidence of twisting of large snapped limb.
• multiple limbs down facing ese
• dead tree limb down on home

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 along Bethel Road about two miles south of Priceville. The tornado tracked southeast up a ridge into a residential area along Spring Valley Road and Spring Valley Trail. Wind speeds in the tornado ranged from 60 to 80 mph snapping numerous large tree limbs. At least one tall hardwood tree was partially uprooted while another was fully uprooted although it had a rotted base. A large portion of a tree was toppled onto a home along River Valley Trail causing damage to siding, gutters and the rooftop. The tornado then lifted upon reaching Shoal Creek Road.

A tornado touched down along County Road 55 near the intersection of Coyote Hollow Drive. The tornado snapped large limbs and knocked down a moderate sized tree onto a home. The tornado skipped a path southeast along County Road 55 atop Cook Gap Mountain. The most concentrated and intense damage incurred by this tornado was located at residences along and adjacent to the intersection of County Road 55 and Union Hill Church Road. A few large trees and limbs were snapped. A few but very large trees were completely uprooted in this general area. Peak wind speeds are estimated to be 90 to 95 mph in these instances. The tornado then skipped along a path a bit more south-southeast crossing Maddox Road snapping large limbs of trees. The tornado then crossed into Cullman County.

A tornado continued its path from Morgan County into Cullman County at Eva Road at County Road 1459 where a tree was snapped at its trunk and where a home lost considerable amounts of siding on the west facing side.

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 Slight 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.

Cullman (CMD), 8 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), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:59 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.