EF1 tornado, Bessie to Divide, Alabama, February 17, 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

February 17, 2022

Touchdown

4:53 PM CST (22:53 UTC)

Lifted

4:58 PM CST (22:58 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.7 miles (7.5 km)

Path width

1,100 yards (1006 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

33.645, -87.000

Lift-off point

33.686, -86.937

Record number

2202171653-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

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

A highly sheared and dynamic storm system produced numerous strong and severe thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening hours on February 17th. Several supercells developed along a pre-frontal trough, which produced a few tornadoes. Additionally, several rounds of heavy rain produced some flash flooding along and|north of I-20, and strong gradient winds ahead of the front caused scattered tree damage.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northwest Jefferson County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum winds near 100 mph. The tornado touched down just south of Interstate 22 just west of the Highway 78 exit. It tracked northeast crossing Highway 78 and Lynndale Road. Multiple soft and hardwood trees were uprooted and snapped, and several semi trucks were overturned on Interstate 22. The tornado continued northeast and crossed Lynns Crossing Road where it began to weaken and lift.

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

15 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:38 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:18 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:00 UTC and running to 01:16 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:22 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), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:50 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

2 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.