EF1 tornado, Belleville, Alabama, March 9, 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 9, 2022

Touchdown

2:11 AM CST (08:11 UTC)

Lifted

2:12 AM CST (08:12 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.2 miles (0.3 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Conecuh County

Touchdown point

31.424, -87.080

Lift-off point

31.426, -87.077

Record number

2203090211-01

13 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 93 mph.

• There are several hardwoods uprooted and a few hardwoods snapped. Metal roofing in trees.
• Numerous pine trees snapped (up high and low) and a few uprooted.
• Multiple storage buildings/sheds with roofs blown off, both metal and wood. A tree fell onto part of a shed.
• Part of chimney and roof damage. Gutters torn off.

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

A strong cold front moved into an increasing unstable airmass over the Central Gulf Coast. Thunderstorms develop ahead of the frontal boundary and produced two tornadoes along with some wind damage. These tornadoes occurred during the early morning hours on March 9th.

A 2.5 mile long swath of straight line wind south of Belleville|preceded the brief Belleville tornado. The straight line wind|damage began to the west of CR 15, south of Belleville, and|continued to the northeast toward Highway 84. The straight line|wind damage may have started prior to CR 15, but the survey team|could not access areas further to the southwest. Several trees|were snapped and uprooted along the initial swath of straight line|wind damage. A brief tornado occurred just east of Belleville|along CR 56. Numerous pine trees were snapped along with several|hardwoods snapped and uprooted just south of CR 56. Three homes in|the area sustained minor roof damage with roof loss for several|sheds and storage buildings. Metal roof pieces were noted in|nearby trees and scattered along the path. A small flag pole was|bent to the ground and a nearby power line was down. The tornado|quickly moved northeast across Highway 84 where several more trees|were snapped. The tornado likely lifted somewhere just to the|north of Highway 84, to the east of Belleville. A path of straight|line wind was noted for at least another 1.5 miles to the|northeast of the tornado track where several more trees were|snapped and a couple of trees were uprooted.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:58 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:26 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:25 UTC and running to 09:23 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:55 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.

Evergreen (GZH), 3 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 138 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:10 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

7 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.