EF1 tornado, Whatley, Alabama, March 30, 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

March 30, 2022

Touchdown

10:33 PM CDT (03:33 UTC)

Lifted

10:34 PM CDT (03:34 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Clarke County

Touchdown point

31.664, -87.730

Lift-off point

31.665, -87.727

Record number

2203302133-01

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

• Several snapped and uprooted softwoods. Very wide swath of sporadic snaps and tin debris from earlier tornado deposited.
• Several softwoods snapped and uprooted at this location. Minor damage to a shed.
• Large newly constructed metal building with complete removal of roof and some metal walls removed. Several snapped and uprooted softwood trees. Weekly defined convergence pattern but tin appears to be in convergence pattern with several trees showing potential convergence. Large swath of strong straight line winds extending further south along road.
• Several snapped and uprooted pines. Two landed on a house destroying a front porch. Most trees laying northeast direction.

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

A very active severe weather season continued as an outbreak of severe thunderstorms occurred across the area from the evening of the 30th into the early morning hours on the 31st. A strong spring storm system moved across the area. Ahead of the system plenty of Gulf moisture returned to the central Gulf coast. This led to a very unstable atmosphere over the region which combined to strong wind shear to produce 18 tornadoes which were rated from EF-0 to EF-2. In addition to the tornadoes, the storms produced damaging straight line winds and large hail. Numerous reports of damage came in from southeast Mississippi, southwest Alabama and the western Florida panhandle.

The brief tornado began along Ft. Sin Quefield Road where several|branches and a couple trees were snapped. The tornado then|crossed the road and removed most of the roof and some exterior|metal walls of a large metal building structure. Several softwood|uproots and a couple softwood snaps were noted at this location. A|large swath of wind damage with divergent pattern extended South|along Ft. Sin Quefield Road with several snapped softwoods noted.|The tornado then lifted quickly as it approached Highway 84 where|only sporadic large tree branches were snapped. This tornado was|associated with a larger swath of 90 to 95 mph straight-line wind|damage with sporadic snapped softwoods.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:39 UTC and running to 04:36 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 00:57 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 Mobile radar (KMOB), 120 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:33 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

80 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 81 of them

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.