EF1 tornado, Magella to Homewood, Alabama, December 10, 2023

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

December 10, 2023

Touchdown

12:13 AM CST (06:13 UTC)

Lifted

12:15 AM CST (06:15 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

33.468, -86.785

Lift-off point

33.477, -86.756

Record number

2312100013-01

133 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Damage to two structures due to falling trees
• Numerous trees down on power lines. Roadway blocked near Ridgeway Drive.
• Numerous trees snapped, with several falling on homes and power lines along Devon Drive.
• Tree fell into and crushed backyard shed

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 tornado first touched down just north of Lakeshore Parkway along Snow Drive. Here the damage was very light with large tree branches broken. The tornado tracked northeast, skirting John Carroll High School before producing significant tree damage along Oak Grove Road. One home was heavily damaged by falling trees, with lesser damage to others, and a large stand of mostly pine trees were snapped or uprooted east of Oak Grove Road. The tornado widened and intensified as it approached Wildwood Parkway. A strip mall there sustained very minor damage. However, a large office complex on the north end of Wildwood Parkway sustained substantial damage. A large number of windows were blown out of a 5-story professional building with many windows and debris blown back westward. A large load bearing beam was also pulled from the roof structure. The tornado is estimated to have reached its maximum intensity here at EF-1 / 100 mph. The tornado continued to move northeast, felling numerous trees south of Kent Drive. Along State Farm Parkway, a couple hotels sustained roof damage, a large hotel sign was blown out, and a vehicle was flipped before it crossed Interstate 65. The tornado reached its maximum width of approximately 600 yards as it crossed Green Spring Avenue. Significant structural damage was noted to an auto repair shop with the roof blown off. Several additional businesses and an apartment complex in this area also sustained minor roof damage. Power poles were snapped in this area as well. Further northeast, the tornado tracked through a densely populated residential area. Here the primary damage was caused by snapping and felling of trees. Many large and mature trees fell through homes in this area, causing moderate to severe damage. The most concentrated area of damage was along and north of Saulter Road and surrounding streets. It is estimated that over three dozen homes in this area sustained at least moderate damage from falling trees. The tornado began to weaken as it tracked on the north side of the Samford University campus with a few trees down in this area. The tornado dissipated near the Windsor Highlands Community along the north edge of the Samford Campus.

An EF-1 tornado touched down just west of US Highway 31 in the Southwood community, just east of Lakeshore Foundation. Numerous softwood trees were knocked down across Old Montgomery Highway and Ashley Road, with some on homes. The tornado tracked east, nearly paralleling Lakeshore Drive/Shades Creek Parkway. At this point the tornado was near its maximum EF-1 intensity and also its widest point of 200 yards. Several houses on the north side of Shades Creek Parkway along Yorkshire Drive, Devon Drive, and Windsor Drive were damaged by falling trees. Power poles were snapped as well. The north facing side of Brookwood Mall also sustained minor structural damage. The very narrow tornado passed through the interchange of US Highway 280 and Shades Creek Parkway, with tree and power line damage noted around the interchange. The tornado moved northeastward across Cahaba Road and up a ridge, with a defined area of tree damage consisting of uproots and snapped limbs and tree tops. The last observable damage occurred at the top of the ridge along Cherokee 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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 04:10 UTC and running to 07:33 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 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 Birmingham radar (KBMX), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:10 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 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.