EF0 tornado, Blue Spgs to Edwin, Alabama, December 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

December 10, 2023

Touchdown

1:19 AM CST (07:19 UTC)

Lifted

1:37 AM CST (07:37 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

8.0 miles (12.9 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

Counties

Henry and Barbour counties

Touchdown point

31.623, -85.442

Lift-off point

31.669, -85.317

Record number

2312100119-01

13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX and NWS TAE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

• 2 smaller pines uprooted on roadbank

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

A pre-frontal line of thunderstorms tracked eastward across Alabama around and just after midnight on December 10th. A segment of the line intensified over Jefferson County, producing two tornadoes and a large swath of wind damage. Elsewhere, two weak tornadoes were spawned over parts of southeast Central Alabama.

A cool season severe weather setup of low instability and high wind shear brought a few reports of severe weather to portions of the tri-state region. A couple of tornadoes occurred in Holmes county, FL, and Henry county, AL.

The tornado began in rural southwestern Barbour County just west of Lury Walker Road with a single tree uprooted along the road bank and a few branches off of trees. The tornado track mainly consisted of sporadic very minor tree damage, yet the path remained discernible and consistent with the associated tornado debris signature (TDS). The tornado crossed Alabama Highway 10 and entered Henry County just north of and parallel to County Rd (CR) 54. The total path length was 8.01 miles across Barbour and Henry counties.

This is a continuation of the EF0 tornado from Barbour County. The tornado began in rural southwestern Barbour County just west of Lury Walker Road, with a single tree uprooted along the road bank and a few branches off the trees. The entire tornado track mainly consisted of sporadic very minor tree damage, yet the path remained discernible and consistent with the associated Tornado Debris Signature (TDS) noted on doppler radar. The tornado crossed Alabama Highway 10 and entered Henry County just north of and parallel to County Rd (CR) 54, before crossing CR 54 just before CR 216. The tornado reached its maximum width of approximately 200 yards wide as well as its maximum intensity, with relatively more widespread tree damage, as well as superficial damage to several manufactured homes. The tornado continued northeastward through forested land before crossing CR 75 and CR 235. It continued across the East Fork of the Choctawhatchee River before crossing CR 29. As the tornado crossed CR 235, it struck a chicken farm, where it caused primarily narrow and minor damage to 6 chicken barns. The tornado continued to the northeast and dissipated before crossing CR 54 yet another time. Max winds were estimated around 75 mph. Damage was estimated.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 06:58 UTC and running to 12:49 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:59 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.

Headland (HDL), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 22 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:19 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.