EF2 tornado, Silver Cross to Service, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

December 14, 2022

Touchdown

5:40 PM CST (23:40 UTC)

Lifted

5:48 PM CST (23:48 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.4 km)

Path width

140 yards (128 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Washington and Choctaw counties

Touchdown point

31.680, -88.214

Lift-off point

31.720, -88.182

Record number

2212141740-01

97 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 128 mph.

• Sentinel satellite imagery from 12/18/22 reveals complete deforestation along the tornado path signifying nearly all trees in this area either snapped or uprooted.
• Sentinel satellite imagery on 12/18/22 reveals extensive tree damage continued through this point, consistent with prior tornadoes given a low end EF2 rating.
• Extensive tree damage/deforestation noted on sentinel satellite imagery available on 12/18/22.
• Start point of 2nd EF2 tornado based on Planet and Worldview Satellite Imagery.

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

A very warm and moist airmass developed ahead of a strong cold front. Thunderstorms developed ahead of the front and produced damaging winds along with a 2-EF2 tornadoes in Choctaw County Alabama along with wind damage in Baldwin County.

An EF2 tornado has been confirmed in far northern Washington into southeastern Choctaw Counties. The tornado touched down as an EF0 along Dry Creek Road where a few trees were uprooted. The next available road was along County Road 31 where significant tree damage occurred to the north of Frankville. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted in a 120 yard swath. Significant snapping and deforestation seemed evident looking further southwest along the track; however, this area was inaccessible at the time and required satellite data to confirm the degree of damage.||After review of high resolution satellite imagery, several changes have been made to this tornado. The first major change was to the intensity of the tornado. Complete deforestation of trees to the southwest of County Road 31 was noted on satellite imagery, indicating numerous if not all trees in the path were uprooted/snapped low at their base. Based on this, the intensity is bumped to 130mph making this a high-end EF2. The next major change is to end the tornado just northeast of County Road 31. Satellite imagery indicates the tornado occluded to the left rather abruptly, and reached its widest point of 140 yards as it once again produced EF2 damage with widespread deforestation during the occlusion process. The damage path ended abruptly once the tornado was moving due north on satellite imagery. It's possible it continued to travel to the north for a bit while weakening, however, based on the storm survey on Blue Dirt Road it never reached the road. This satellite imagery explains the discontinuity that was noted in the original storm survey downstream by Blue Dirt Road where a new tornado began.

An EF2 tornado has been confirmed in far northern Washington into southeastern Choctaw Counties. The tornado touched down as an EF0 along Dry Creek Road where a few trees were uprooted. The next available road was along County Road 31 where significant tree damage occurred to the north of Frankville. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted in a 120 yard swath. Significant snapping and deforestation seemed evident looking further southwest along the track; however, this area was inaccessible at the time and required satellite data to confirm the degree of damage.||After review of high resolution satellite imagery, several changes have been made to this tornado. The first major change was to the intensity of the tornado. Complete deforestation of trees to the southwest of County Road 31 was noted on satellite imagery, indicating numerous if not all trees in the path were uprooted/snapped low at their base. Based on this, the intensity is bumped to 130mph making this a high-end EF2. The next major change is to end the tornado just northeast of County Road 31. Satellite imagery indicates the tornado occluded to the left rather abruptly, and reached its widest point of 140 yards as it once again produced EF2 damage with widespread deforestation during the occlusion process. The damage path ended abruptly once the tornado was moving due north on satellite imagery. It's possible it continued to travel to the north for a bit while weakening, however, based on the storm survey on Blue Dirt Road it never reached the road. This satellite imagery explains the discontinuity that was noted in the original storm survey downstream by Blue Dirt Road where a new tornado began.

After reviewing sentinel satellite imagery available on 12/18/22, the determination has been made that the segment of the original surveyed tornado track from Blue Dirt Road to Highway 84 was a separate EF2 tornado with peak winds of 115mph. The original tornado occluded a few minutes prior to the genesis of this tornado. A remarkable gradient at the point of genesis was noted by the survey team in a field of snapped/uprooted trees, where trees went from untouched to numerous snaps of softwood trees in as little as 5 to 10 feet. Based on sentinel satellite imagery, the tornado maintained intensity, perhaps slightly strengthening as it moved off to the northeast of Blue Dirt Road where significant deforestation was noted in an approximate 120 yard swath. At the tornadoes halfway point, it likely weakened to an EF0/EF1 as it passed by a field with no notable tree damage on satellite imagery. Once the tornado reached Highway 84, it was a very weak EF0 that uprooted a couple softwood trees, lifting at that location.||Extended path to start earlier based on Planet and Worldview Satellite Imagery. Tornado start time was simultaneous to the timing of the occlusion of the first tornado.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:34 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:49 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:28 UTC and running to 02:10 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 Mobile radar (KMOB), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:41 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.