EF1 tornado, Tishabee to Knoxville, 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

9:10 PM CDT (02:10 UTC)

Lifted

9:21 PM CDT (02:21 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

8.8 miles (14.2 km)

Path width

275 yards (251 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Greene County

Touchdown point

32.646, -88.026

Lift-off point

32.746, -87.936

Record number

2203302010-01

45 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.

• Numerous snaps and uproots, likely center
• Sporadic tree damage. No further damage seen crossing Hwy 43 downstream of here.

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

A strong storm system approached Central Alabama on the afternoon of March 30th. A line of strong to severe thunderstorms moved west to east across the area during the evening and into the overnight hours. A few discrete supercell storms developed ahead of the main convective line as well. Damage from tornadoes, straight-line winds, and gradient winds ahead of the convective line was reported across numerous counties.||A total of 12 tornadoes occurred across Central Alabama. This included 3 EF2 tornadoes, 7 EF1 tornadoes, and 2 EF0 tornadoes. Widespread, significant tree damage and destruction of some residences occurred along the paths of the most intense tornadoes. There were no fatalities, but 2 injuries were reported in Bibb and Shelby Counties.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southern Greene County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum winds near 100 mph. The tornado touched down west of Johnston Lake where some trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado then impacted some mobile homes on Knott Rd. One mobile home was rolled and destroyed. The tornado continued northeast across a heavily wooded area but then impacted homes and farm buildings near Taylor Branch. One house sustained minor roof and siding damage, but a mobile home farther east was completely destroyed with debris blown north into a tree line along County Road 50. Residents were not home at the time. The tornado continued northeast impacting a nearby church at County Roads 50 and 72. Several homes nearby sustained minor to significant roof damage on Develle Road. The tornado continued northeast crossing County Roads 49, 20 and 148, where trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado lifted near Taylor Creek before it crossed Highway 43.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in eastern Greene County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum winds near 100 mph. The tornado touched down near Flag Road, near the Black Warrior River. The tornado snapped and uprooted dozens of trees, some of which fell onto homes. Some homes sustained significant roof damage, with debris blown in a north direction and splatter on south and east facing walls. The tornado tracked northeast snapping and uprooting more trees near Sims Creek. The damage path may have continued farther but there was no access beyond the last observable point.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:09 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:30 UTC and running to 03:06 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 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.

Demopolis (DYA), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:08 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.