EF1 tornado, Landersville to Belle Mina, 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 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

January 12, 2023

Touchdown

8:09 AM CST (14:09 UTC)

Lifted

8:45 AM CST (14:45 UTC)

On the ground

36 minutes

Path length

30.3 miles (48.8 km)

Path width

325 yards (297 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Lawrence, Morgan and Limestone counties

Touchdown point

34.449, -87.364

Lift-off point

34.662, -86.899

Record number

2301120809-01

51 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

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

Placeholder...

A supercell thunderstorm produced a tornado as it traversed a ridge just west of CR 101. Numerous large branches and trees uprooted were observed in this location. As the tornado tracked east of CR 101 toward CR 117, a large number of softwood trees were snapped. The tornado crossed CR 117, snapping and uprooting more trees, and causing minor roof damage to several residences. What was likely the center of the vortex, a single-family home was observed to have minor roof damage and near destruction of a large metal workshop behind the property. As it tracked east of CR 117, numerous softwood trees were snapped or uprooted heading toward downtown Moulton. Damage indicators along and near CR 117 were the focus of this tornado and produced the peak wind estimate of 104 mph. Moving northeast at this point, the tornado likely briefly lifted before causing isolated damage in downtown Moulton. Minor damage was observed at the high school baseball fields and roof damage at Lawrence Medical Center. The tornado eventually crossed Highway 24 and caused roof damage to a motel near the Highway 24 and CR 157 intersection. From this point, the tornado caused sporadic tree damage as the tornado was likely lifting and descending before crossing into western Morgan County.

Crossing into western Morgan County, the tornado lifted at times between Trinity and Beltline Road. Power lines were knocked down and occasionally limb damage was noted. Moving toward Highway 20, minor mobile home roof damage was recorded at Kimberly Pines. Further east, as the tornado crossed Highway 20, a tractor-trailer was blown off the road and tipped over. The tornado approached Jay's Landing and caused several large campers to flip or be displaced. Near this location, an injury was reported at a recycling facility. The tornado approached Ingalls Harbor. Damage to the law enforcement marina was noted near the shoreline while |several large trees were uprooted along Highway 20 in this area.

The tornado crossed the Tennessee River and continued to move toward the northeast. Tree damage was noted on the campus of Calhoun Community College, with minor damage to the baseball complex as well. Cedar trees were uprooted east of Pryor Field on Garrett Road. The final damage point was along Fennel Road and Fennel |Lane, with large branches knocked down.

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

21 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:48 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:00 UTC and running to 16:34 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:21 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), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:07 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.