Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2022
EF1 tornado, Mertz, Alabama, May 6, 2022
This EF1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Mobile County on May 6, 2022, touching down at 2:56 AM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF1
- Date
- May 6, 2022
- Touchdown
- 2:56 AM CDT (07:56 UTC)
- Lifted
- 2:57 AM CDT (07:57 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Mobile County
- Touchdown point
- 30.674, -88.056
- Lift-off point
- 30.677, -88.053
- Record number
- 2205060156-01
The damage survey
4 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 110 mph.
- Street sign snapped. Fence damage. Minor shingle damage. Lots of small tree debris
- Large metal building had exterior wall panels and the brick façade pulled off. In addition, there were two large metal sheds that were picked up and tossed in different directions.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A line of severe thunderstorms organized to the west of the area during the early morning hours and raced across the area during the morning. The storms produced several reports of wind damage along with two tornadoes.
A brief and very narrow high end EF-1 tornado touched down at the|Greer`s and Family Dollar on Broad Street. The tornado directly|moved over the Family Dollar with the building completely destroyed.|The tornado lifted off the roof and then the roof collapsed back|down onto building, resulting in its destruction. The tornado|continued to produce sporadic EF0 damage to the northeast|and lifted near Texas Street just east of Broad Street.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:01 UTC | 08:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB |
| 08:25 UTC | 08:37 UTC | Tornado Warning | MOB |
| 08:36 UTC | 09:04 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MOB |
| 15:27 UTC | 18:19 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | MOB |
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 forecast that day
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 05:58 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 radar
The Mobile radar (KMOB), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:56 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07:56 UTC | TORNADO | 1 E Ladd Stadium | Mobile, AL | A BRIEF AND VERY NARROW HIGH END EF-1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN AT THE GREERS AND FAMILY DOLLAR ON BROAD STREET. THE TORNADO DIRECTLY MOVED OVER THE FAMILY DOLLAR WITH THE BUILDING COMPLETELY DESTROYED. THE TORNADO LIFTED OFF |
| 08:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 E Ladd Stadium | Mobile, AL | FAMILY DOLLAR SEVERELY DAMAGED TO DESTROYED IN DOWNTOWN MOBILE. POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 08:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nne Grand Bay | Mobile, AL | REPORT OF SEMIS TIPPED OVER AND AN RV ROLLED AND DESTROYED AT AN ADJACENT RV PARK. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 08:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Saint Elmo | Mobile, AL | SEVERAL TREES DAMAGED WITH LARGE TREE BRANCHES SNAPPED IN THE ST ELMO COMMUNITY. PICTURES AND REPORTS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 08:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Irvington | Mobile, AL | METAL ROOF OF AN OLDER BUILDING PEELED BACK DUE TO THE WIND. A FEW OTHER BUILDINGS ALONG HOME AVE IN THE IRVINGTON COMMUNITY SUSTAINED MINOR WIND DAMAGE. PICTURES AND REPORTS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 08:35 UTC | MARINE TSTM WIND 39 | Brookley Field Asos | Mobile, AL | ASOS STATION (KBFM) AT BROOKLEY FIELD GUSTED TO 39 MPH WITH THE FIRST ROUND OF STORMS. |
| 08:47 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 E Daphne | Baldwin, AL | BROADCAST MEDIA REPORTS STRUCTURAL DAMAGE ON CORNER OF CAPITAL DRIVE AND RAND AVENUE. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 08:47 UTC | TORNADO | 2 E Daphne | Baldwin, AL | A BRIEF EF1 TORNADO FIRST TOUCHED DOWN JUST NORTH OF COUNTY ROAD 64, WEST OF CAPITAL DRIVE. A HOME AT THIS LOCATION WAS DAMAGED BY AN DOWNED TREE. THE TORNADO THEN MOVED NORTHEAST AND SIGNIFICANTLY DAMAGED A LARGE METAL |
| 08:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Robertsdale | Baldwin, AL | BROADCAST MEDIA REPORTS TREES DOWN IN THE ROBERTSDALE, AL AREA. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 09:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ne Loxley | Baldwin, AL | WOODEN PORCH LIFTED AND THROWN ACROSS THE YARD IN THE LOXLEY AREA (VERY CLOSE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA CHILI MESONET SITE). NEARBY CARPORT ALSO DAMAGED FROM THE WIND. PICTURES AND REPORTS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 09:00 UTC | TSTM WND GST 64 | 2 Ne Loxley | Baldwin, AL | UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA CHILI MESONET MEASURED A 64 MPH THUNDERSTORM WIND GUST. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 6, 2022
13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 6 | 3:47 AM CDT | EF1 | Baldwin, AL | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| May 6 | 1:49 PM EDT | EF1 | Pulaski, KY | 3.2 | 100 | 2 | ||
| May 6 | 4:14 PM EDT | EF1 | Pickens, SC | 0.5 | 150 | $10,000 | ||
| May 6 | 1:44 PM PDT | EF1 | Umatilla, OR | 2.9 | 175 | |||
| May 6 | 5:00 PM EDT | EF1 | Swain, NC | 0.5 | 50 | $30,000 | ||
| May 6 | 5:08 PM EDT | EF1 | Orange, NC | 3.5 | 400 | $250,000 | ||
| May 6 | 5:44 PM EDT | EF0 | Jackson, IN | 0.1 | 20 | $10,000 | ||
| May 6 | 5:49 PM EDT | EF0 | Wakulla, FL | 2.5 | 25 | |||
| May 6 | 7:06 PM EDT | EF0 | Taylor, FL | 0.3 | 50 | $75,000 | ||
| May 6 | 7:41 PM EDT | EF1 | Rockingham, NC | 7.9 | 300 | $700,000 | ||
| May 6 | 8:40 PM EDT | EF0 | Rockbridge, VA | 0.1 | 60 | $8,000 | ||
| May 6 | 8:03 PM PDT | EF0 | Spokane, WA | 0.6 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| May 6 | 8:17 PM PDT | EF0 | Spokane, WA | 2.1 | 250 | $40,000 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.