EF1 tornado, Spring Vly to Hobgood Siding, Alabama, April 14, 2019

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 14, 2019

Touchdown

1:35 AM CDT (06:35 UTC)

Lifted

1:36 AM CDT (06:36 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

70 yards (64 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Colbert County

Touchdown point

34.674, -87.608

Lift-off point

34.689, -87.604

Record number

1904140035-01

8 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 104 mph.

• Metal billboard damaged and debris strewn over 100 yards NE into the yard across Hwy 72

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

During the evening of the 13th, isolated low-topped supercells develops in central moving into north Alabama north of an advancing warm front. One of the storms produced large hail up to the size of tennis balls in Limestone County.||Later in the evening of the 13th and through the early morning hours of the 14th, multiple lines of thunderstorms developed in Mississippi ahead of a strong cold front and shifted slowly east into north Alabama. The individual line segments at times broke off into more super-cellular thunderstorms. A couple of these produced tornadoes in Franklin and Colbert Counties. Several other reports of thunderstorm wind damage were received. In addition, gusty south-southeast winds developed ahead of the advancing line of thunderstorms. Gusts over 40 mph were reported, and also knocked a few trees/limbs down in northwest Alabama.||Intense rainfall rates were observed with the thunderstorms at times, and in some cases a few areas received multiple periods of thunderstorms. Rainfall amounts of 2-3 inches in just 1 to 2 hours was reported. Rapid runoff from this rainfall resulted in flash flooding in a few locations of northwest Alabama. In Franklin County, EMA reported a high water rescue and a road that was washed out near the town of Vina. Other reports of flash flooding were reported by Colbert County EMA.

The tornado touched down on far southern Renee Drive, at the beginning of the Aycock Heights subdivision. It proceeded to move northward through the subdivision, uprooting and snapping numerous hardwood and softwood trees along its path. Minor structural damage was noted in the subdivision in the form of roof and shingle damage, with several unanchored outbuildings or sheds destroyed. The tornado was at most 70 yards wide within the subdivision. The tornado then damaged a billboard as it crossed Highway 72, before snapping and uprooting several hardwood and softwood trees at a home across the highway from Aycock Heights. An RV was flipped on its side at this location, with |other minor roof damage noted on the home. The tornado uprooted a few trees just north of this location before dissipating in the field just northeast of the property. Damage with this tornado was consistent with an EF-1 tornado, which was assessed at having 100 mph winds.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:09 UTC and running to 07:51 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:01 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.

Muscle Shoals Regional (MSL), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:35 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 2019 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

33 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.