EF0 tornado, Wheeler Lake North to Ripley, Alabama, August 10, 2023

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

August 10, 2023

Touchdown

2:21 AM CDT (07:21 UTC)

Lifted

2:28 AM CDT (07:28 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

7.7 miles (12.3 km)

Path width

225 yards (206 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Limestone County

Touchdown point

34.781, -87.242

Lift-off point

34.736, -87.121

Record number

2308100121-01

16 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

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

A line of strong to severe thunderstorms raced east-southeast from the Ozarks through the mid South during the evening hours of the 9th and into the Tennessee Valley during the early morning hours of the 10th. The line produced several reports of wind damage and one EF-0 tornado in Limestone County.

Damage was consistent with a high-end EF-0 tornado with maximum winds of 85 mph. The tornado was on the ground for approximately 7 minutes and had a maximum width of 225 yards. Damage indicators were a mix of softwood and hardwood trees, uprooted or partially snapped along the path. The tornado formed on the northern shore of Wheeler Lake on Little Elk Road, downing softwood trees at this location. The tornado crossed Snake Road to the southeast, downing and uprooting additional softwood trees along Bay Hill and Bay Shore Drives. Several homes at this location sustained significant damage to docks as trees fell on them, with uprooted trees causing damage as well to retaining walls and sprinkler systems in this area. At this point, the tornado crossed the open waters along the north shore of Wheeler Lake before coming ashore again just before Davis Road. Several trees were uprooted along with very large, snapped branches here. One home sustained damage in this area as a tree fell on the back side of the structure. While the tree looked snapped, the health of the tree looked to be in question which likely led to its quick failure. The tornado then crossed an inlet and uprooted several more trees along Beechwood Road, before continuing to the Brigadoon neighborhood. Significant and more widespread tree damage was noted in this neighborhood as trees were uprooted, power poles knocked down, and large branches snapped. The tornado continued to follow the northern shore of Wheeler Lake but began weakening. Damage, much less widespread compared to areas further west, was observed along Beech Fork Lane and sporadic tree damage through Shaw Road. The tornado dissipated just east of Shaw Road.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:07 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.

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:20 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 2023 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.