EF0 tornado, Mc Gehees to Garters Hill, Alabama, December 29, 2024

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 29, 2024

Touchdown

12:40 AM CST (06:40 UTC)

Lifted

12:41 AM CST (06:41 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Montgomery County

Touchdown point

32.225, -86.409

Lift-off point

32.226, -86.404

Record number

2412290040-01

41 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 110 mph.

• Windows blown out at Hooper Academy. Minor damage around school such as flipped shed and playground equipment and minor gutter damage.
• Hundreds of trees down just south of Mt Zion Baptist Church per Facebook comment.
• Minor roof damage at Lear, Hyundai, and Hager. One small uprooted tree.
• One tree fell through corner of double wide. Splatter on the east facing side.

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

A quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) entered western Alabama from Mississippi just after 9 PM on December 28. With ample wind shear and adequate instability with the line as it passed through Central Alabama, 18 confirmed tornadoes were spawned within different line segments as the QLCS pushed eastward. Of the 18 tornadoes, 6 were rated EF1, including one that had a mile-wide path in Hale County near Sawyerville and two tornadoes that struck areas of central Montgomery County. An EF0 in Lowndes County resulted in two injuries. In addition, strong gusts associated with the QLCS resulted in scattered areas of non-tornadic wind damage.

A tornado began along County Road 26, with several cedar limbs down along the road. Numerous trees were uprooted across Hargrove Lane, and several more trees were downed near Rolling Acres Road. North of George Drive, a few trees were downed around a residence, solar panels were blown off the house, and siding was removed from an outbuilding. The tornado crossed into Montgomery County, where a small barn had much of the roof removed just east of Mason Road. A wooden playground set was flipped over against a tree just east of this location. Maximum winds were estimated at 75 mph.

A tornado began along Bill Joseph Pkwy and moved eastward across Folmar Pkwy and I-65. A few warehouses at the intersection of Bill Joseph and Folmar sustained roof and siding damage, with several trees down as well. At the end of County Court adjacent to I-65, the tornado became much stronger, and two warehouses sustained major roof loss on a corner of each building along with cinder-block wall collapse in sections of both buildings. Several semi trailers were flipped or tossed as well. This damage was rated upper-end EF1. After scattering debris across the interstate, two businesses at the intersection of U.S. 31 and Fischer Road sustained roof and structural damage, with several more semi trailers behind the buildings being flipped or moved. Just south of this location, Hooper Academy had mostly minor damage to the building and surrounding grounds which was not directly related to the tornado. Continuing east-northeast, several trees were uprooted north of Lagos Lane as the tornado tracked northeastward toward Hyundai Blvd. A newly constructed greenhouse-type building south of the main Hyundai facility had much of the covering ripped off. A house and shed at Hyundai Blvd had roof loss, and across the road a small metal building at the southeast corner of the Hyundai campus had roofing removed and blown across a railroad into a tree line. The tornado appeared to dissipate at this point, just before reaching U.S. 331. Maximum estimated winds were 110 mph.

A tornado began along Hobbie Road and Hillabee Road with a few uprooted trees and broken limbs. Tree damage gradually became more concentrated as the tornado moved northeastward, with a home south of Ridgeland Farms Road having the top of a pine tree fall on it. Several trees were uprooted across wooded areas before the tornado arrived at Mount Zion Road, where numerous pine trees were snapped or uprooted, one of which fell into the corner of a double-wide manufactured home. Significant splatter was observed on the east facing side of the double-wide. A couple sheds nearby sustained damage as well. Numerous trees were uprooted northeastward across wooded areas and pastures to Woodley Road and further to U.S. 231. Here, the BBQ Hill business sustained roof damage and had numerous pine trees snapped or uprooted on the premises. More trees were downed and an outbuilding was damaged along Old Carter Hill Road as the tornado dissipated. Maximum estimated winds were 100 mph.

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 03:19 UTC and running to 08:02 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 General Thunderstorms 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.

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 Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:42 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 2024 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

30 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.