EF0 tornado, Tanner Williams to (Mob)Mobile Bates Fl, Alabama, January 9, 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

January 9, 2024

Touchdown

3:56 AM CST (09:56 UTC)

Lifted

3:58 AM CST (09:58 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Mobile County

Touchdown point

30.640, -88.243

Lift-off point

30.645, -88.219

Record number

2401090356-01

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Lots of larger limbs broken. About 30 yards of fence blown in with some parts of the fence thrown across Cottage Hill road. A low brick wall was completely destroyed. Very noticeable convergent path across Cottage Hill Road.
• A shoppin center had a small area of the roof and siding peeled up on the southwest corner. Behind this building was what looked to be a toy hauler/small RV rolled.
• Small limbs were broken and some minor shingle damage. This is likely the end of the tornado as damage became sporadic and unable to find a convergence path after this point.
• Couple larger branches snapped and a single uproot. A small shed was rolled and destroyed.

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

Multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms moved across southwest Alabama starting during the late evening hours of January 8th and continued through early morning hours of the 9th. This system produced four EF-0's and two EF-1's in Alabama.

The tornado began likely just west of Novatan Rd south of Tanner Williams rd. in the forest based off of TDS from KMOB. Exact location is difficult to find and may need satellite imagery at a later date. The tornado quickly moved east across Novatan Rd where it caused a few softwoods to lose large limbs. Sporadic nature of the damage supported lower bound wind estimates for the damage. A small shed was also tossed at this point. Tornado continued northeast where it produced light sporadic damage to trees. The tornado crossed Tanner Williams Road near Rigby Rd causing minor damage to trees and brought down a traffic light. Sporadic damage continues to the northeast towards Snow Road where damage became too sporadic to determine a convergent path and the tornado likely lifted. A weak discontinuous path may be possible further east; however, damage was either too weak or too small to sporadic for ground surveys to determine a path after Snow Road.

A brief EF-0 tornado began along Cottage Hill Road just east of Dawes Road. The tornado quickly intensified knocking down fences and ripping branches off. Parts of the fence were blow across Cottage Hill rd. to the north. The tornado peaked as it moved towards Leroy Stevens rd. resulting in a low brick wall being destroyed. Uplift to the corner of the roof of a small retail building and most impressively rolling either a small trailer or small RV. The tornado then crossed Leroy Stevens Rd. before dissipating. The tornado may have continued further, but no convergent path was able to be found after this point.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:47 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:42 UTC and running to 10:59 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.

Mobile/Bates Field (MOB), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 4 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:55 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

31 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.