EF1 tornado, Salco, Alabama, June 16, 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

June 16, 2023

Touchdown

8:00 AM CDT (13:00 UTC)

Lifted

8:07 AM CDT (13:07 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

7.0 miles (11.3 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Mobile County

Touchdown point

31.013, -87.967

Lift-off point

30.958, -87.868

Record number

2306160700-01

26 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 104 mph.

• Radar indicated anticyclonic rotation with well defined CC dropout collocated with strong Vrot and reflectivity. Hi-resolution satellite imagery provided by Worldview shows the beginning point of the tornado with a few snapped treetops and uprooted trees.
• Likely strongest point of the tornado based on hi-resolution satellite imagery from Worldview. Multiple trees uprooted and treetops snapped. A low snaps as well visible.
• A few trees uprooted and a couple treetops snapped. Visible via hi-resolution satellite imagery from Digital Globe Worldview.
• Tree damage visible at this location in a broad swath along the riverside.

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

Strong thunderstorms tracked across the area and became severe in a very moist and unstable airmass. The thunderstorms produced damaging winds, large hail and a couple of weak tornadoes.

An unusual anticyclonic tornado began just west of the Middle River associated with the anticyclonic bookend vortex of a powerful Mesoscale Convective System moving across the area. The tornado likely began just west of the Mobile River based on a radar debris signature and continued to the southwest of Stockton near the Tensaw River. After completion of the storm survey, it was determined the tornado continued as an EF1 cutting across the Tensaw river where a narrow path of trees snapped exists. The tornado turned to the east moving across Live Oak Road snapping and uprooting multiple pines and oaks. Past this, a lack of convergent damage suggests the tornado likely lifted somewhere on Live Oak Road prior to reaching State Highway 225. Additional intense straight line wind damage was surveyed near the path associated with the bookends RFD just to the north where straight line wind speed estimates were upwards of 90mph. The tornado track and intensity has been updated on 6/28/2023 to reflect hi-resolution satellite imagery from Digital Globe Worldview. Winds are estimated upwards of 100mph peaking along the Bottle Creek where many trees were uprooted with a few snaps.

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 06:53 UTC and running to 15:00 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:52 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.

Bay Minette (1R8), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:02 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

13 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.