EF1 tornado, Kingville to Covin, Alabama, February 23, 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

February 23, 2019

Touchdown

5:52 PM CST (23:52 UTC)

Lifted

6:09 PM CST (00:09 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

9.2 miles (14.8 km)

Path width

700 yards (640 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Lamar and Fayette counties

Touchdown point

33.656, -88.059

Lift-off point

33.732, -87.927

Record number

1902231752-01

55 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX and NWS JAN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

• several tall pines leaning westward
• numerous trees uprooted and a few snapped
• large pine uprooted with numerous others uprooted
• numerous pines snapped west. road blocked by large pine

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

A east-west zone of deep moisture across north Alabama on February 22nd was located along the northern periphery of a 500mb ridge across Florida. A digging short wave trough over the Southwest United States produced several downstream impulses which produced localized heavy rainfall across Marion County. On the next day, the upper trough tracked northeast into Texas and produced a band of severe storms across Central Alabama.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southeast Lamar County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 105 mph.||The tornado touched down southwest of Crawford Road in the Kingville community and traveled northeast. At the initial point of touchdown, a large area of uprooted and snapped trees were observed along County Road 49. In this area, near the intersection of County Road 20 and County Road 49, a manufactured home was lofted and displaced to the northeast approximately 75 feet. Maximum winds at this location were 105 mph. The tornado continued northeast towards western Fayette County, just south of Highway 18. Along the path, several uprooted trees and many snapped limbs were observed. The damage path become more narrow as the tornado continued northeast and crossed into Fayette County, near Twin Lake Road.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in far western Fayette County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 95 mph.||This tornado was a continuation of a tornado in Lamar County. The tornado entered Fayette County near Twin Lake Road and lifted shortly after entering the county. It produced mostly tree damage.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:27 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:05 UTC and running to 02:43 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, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:54 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

5 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.