EF1 tornado, Oden Ridge, Alabama, May 26, 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

May 26, 2022

Touchdown

1:25 PM CDT (18:25 UTC)

Lifted

1:29 PM CDT (18:29 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.1 km)

Path width

65 yards (59 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$15,000

County

Morgan County

Touchdown point

34.395, -86.794

Lift-off point

34.403, -86.786

Record number

2205261225-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• Tree in foreground was uprooted and had been cut. Tree snapped in background along downward sloping terrain.
• Shingles blown off roof of mobile home, tarp can be seen covering roof.
• Hardwood tree uprooted and fell on small shed

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

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A tornado touched down on the south side of Wilson Mountain Rd just south of the intersection with Key Turney Rd in Falkville, AL. The tornado snapped a couple of hardwood trees and did minor roof damage to a mobile home near its touchdown point. The tornado crossed Wilson Mountain Rd, heading generally in a NE direction and snapped and uprooted trees along its path. One of these hardwood trees fell on a shed at a residence on the north side of Wilson Mountain Rd. A few snapped and uprooted trees were observed along its path as it descended into Devils Cellar Hollow. A couple of large trees were also uprooted to the NE of there along a small section of Jewel Lesalle Ln. This was the last point damage was evident as the tornado moved into rugged, nearly inaccessible terrain. Special thanks to Morgan County, AL EMA for their assistance in this survey.

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.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 15:54 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.

Cullman (CMD), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:26 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

9 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.