Unrated tornado, South to Gantt, Alabama, January 12, 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

January 12, 2023

Touchdown

2:24 PM CST (20:24 UTC)

Lifted

2:28 PM CST (20:28 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

4.6 miles (7.4 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Covington County

Touchdown point

31.432, -86.563

Lift-off point

31.431, -86.485

Record number

2301121424-01

35 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.

• Tree damage visible on high resolution satellite imagery at this location.
• Tree damage visible on high resolution satellite imagery at this location. Widely spaced trees throughout the field were taken down.

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

A very warm and moist airmass developed ahead of an approaching strong cold front. Showers and thunderstorms developed ahead of the front and moved across the area. The storms produced three tornadoes along with a swath of wind damage stretching from the I-65 corridor in Conecuh County o far southeastern Crenshaw County.

Additional tornado discovered via Planet Satellite Imagery from the same supercell that spawned several other tornadoes along its track across the CWA on 1/12/2023. This tornado began near Turkey Creek Road carving a narrow path of intermittent tree damage eastward across Johnson Road and Oakey Streak Road. The tornado likely lifted just after this point where visible damage on satellite imagery becomes indiscernible. This tornado was given an EF-U rating given there was no available high-resolution imagery to reveal what types of DI's could be used. If high resolution imagery becomes available, we may be able to assess this tornado's intensity.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

33 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:51 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:12 UTC and running to 23:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Andalusia (79J), 19 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), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:23 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

41 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.