EF0 tornado, Tanner Williams to Orchard, Alabama, March 30, 2022

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

March 30, 2022

Touchdown

10:41 PM CDT (03:41 UTC)

Lifted

10:43 PM CDT (03:43 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Mobile County

Touchdown point

30.753, -88.315

Lift-off point

30.758, -88.308

Record number

2203302141-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LIX and NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• A few shingles lifted on home roof; fence blown over; twig debris; metal roofing from shed tossed into street sign; small 20yrd wide convergent pattern, difficult to find.
• Roof damage to barn; metal roofing blown off a shed; greenhouse tent damaged; larger tree branch snaps
• A couple snaps, fence down, awning blown down, basketball hoop blown into brick pillar, several tree branches down
• Large uproot, snaps, fencing down, minor roof damage on home, garage damaged, tree branches down

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.

A brief tornado touched down near Harry Pierce Road and moved|northeast into Alabama and lifted just east of State Line Road.|This was mostly due to tree damage and seeing a debris signature|on radar.

A brief tornado touched down near Ellen Drive, resulting in the|loss of some shingles on a nearby home, a blown over fence, and|metal roofing from a shed which was tossed and wrapped around a|street sign. The width of the convergent pattern was really narrow|at this point, around 20 yards. The tornado then traveled|northeast across Howells Ferry Road and just east of Wulff Road|where the roof of a barn and a greenhouse tent were damaged, along|with metal roofing that was blown off a shed. Additionally, there|were large trees that were snapped. The tornado then likely|lifted shortly after.

Another tornado began south of Howells Ferry Road, east of|Howells Lane. A couple trees were snapped in the residential area,|along with fencing down and the roof of an awning that was blown|down. A basketball hoop was knocked over into a brick pillar,|destroying the pillar. The storm progressed north-northeast and|uprooted one or two large trees and caused several snapped trees.|Minor roof damage was noted to a nearby home along with bent|garage doors as well. The tornado likely continued north-northeast|over more forest and dissipated possibly over an adjacent|landfill. Debris from this landfill was tossed into upstream|residential areas.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:24 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:15 UTC.

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 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.

Mobile/Bates Field (MOB), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 11 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:39 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.