EF1 tornado, Siloam, Alabama, December 14, 2022

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

December 14, 2022

Touchdown

3:17 PM CST (21:17 UTC)

Lifted

3:24 PM CST (21:24 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

4.4 miles (7.1 km)

Path width

225 yards (206 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Sumter County

Touchdown point

32.370, -88.273

Lift-off point

32.413, -88.220

Record number

2212141517-01

29 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 100 mph.

• Debris from house across the road, NNW direction
• Trunks snapped and other uprooted, several laying in varying direction.
• Roof taken off of a off building Partial roof damage Few trees down
• Numerous trees snapped and uprooted

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

A warm sector with surface temperatures in the 70s and dewpoints in the 60s developed over southwest Alabama during the afternoon of December 14th. Low level shear and helicity values were also high during the afternoon, producing conditions favorable for tornadoes.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southern Sumter County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum winds near 90 mph. The tornado touched down just west of the the intersection of County Road 9 and Jessie Powell Road. Several softwood trees were snapped along County Road 9 and there was damage to two homes. Each home sustained varying degrees of roof damage, mostly minor. One home had roof material peeled away and was lofted to the northwest, and the porch had been lifted. A couple of nearby farm structures had roof and minor structural damage with debris lofted to the north. The tornado then continued northeast crossing Gully Road where a few trees were damaged. The next observable damage point was at the intersection of Highway 17 and Wright Road, where additional tree damage was observed. The tornado lifted shortly after crossing Highway 17.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:05 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:34 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:30 UTC and running to 00:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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), 163 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:15 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 2022 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

37 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.