EF0 tornado, Gallion to Cedarville, Alabama, April 14, 2019

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

April 14, 2019

Touchdown

1:26 AM CDT (06:26 UTC)

Lifted

1:35 AM CDT (06:35 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

8.7 miles (14.0 km)

Path width

220 yards (201 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Hale County

Touchdown point

32.505, -87.704

Lift-off point

32.615, -87.636

Record number

1904140026-01

42 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 81 mph.

• DOD changed to match EF-0.

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

A very potent storm system moved out of the Southern Plains States and into the Central Gulf Coast Region Saturday and into Sunday morning. This system produced widespread severe weather from Texas to Alabama, including numerous tornadoes. A line of severe storms moved into West Alabama shortly before midnight Saturday night and progressed eastward across all of Central Alabama. The line of storms produced pockets of damaging straight line winds, localized flooding, and several tornadoes.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Hale County and determined that it was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph. The tornado touched down on the south side of E Z Street just south of Highway 80 and tracked northeast where it knocked over a trailer at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church. The tornado continued northeast across Gallion Road where it caused timber damage and ripped most of the metal roofing and sides off a large metal shed. Timber damage continued as it moved northeast, impacting portions of Davis and Hall Roads. A home just west of Hall Road suffered minor damage to shingles and overhangs while a home on the north end of Hall Road was impacted by an uprooted tree that resulted in partial roof damage. A large shed between Hall Road and Highway 69 lost nearly all of its metal roof. North of the damaged shed, a home suffered minor siding damage. The tornado then tracked northeast, causing timber damage as it crossed Highway 69 and destroying a shed along with damaging another larger shed. Notable timber damage was observed north and northeast of this point as the tornado moved east of Highway 69 into uninhabited and inaccessible areas. Tornado damage was evident from Prairie Oaks Ranch located on Pecan Road. The tornado caused damage to several trees on the property and some fencing along Cat Bottom Road. The tornado moved northeast across open fields with timber damage along a tree line found along County Road 10. The tornado tracked northeast across County Road 9 where it ripped some metal tin off of a barn and caused additional tree damage. The tornado moved across open fields until it impacted portions of a tree line along a farm road just west of Highway 9. Additional timber damage was found further north along County Road 9 as the tornado turned more northeast. The tornado caused sporadic tree damage before lifting just south of County Road 16.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:16 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:12 UTC and running to 07:54 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.

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:28 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.