EF1 tornado, Holbert Spgs to Ardmore Arpt, Alabama, May 8, 2024

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

May 8, 2024

Touchdown

8:11 PM CDT (01:11 UTC)

Lifted

8:26 PM CDT (01:26 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.7 km)

Path width

90 yards (82 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Limestone County

Touchdown point

34.893, -87.155

Lift-off point

34.918, -87.080

Record number

2405081911-01

99 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN and NWS OHX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 136 mph.

• Major damage to shop building. Impressive tree damage
• Major tree damage along this road
• Tree fell on home causing the damage
• EM suspects this was a garbage dump rather than lofted debri with the snapped branch

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

A significant outbreak of tornadoes occurred in two waves during the evening of the 8th and early morning hours of the 9th. The first wave occurred as multiple supercell thunderstorms developed across southern middle Tennessee and far north central Alabama. These storms moved east during the evening hours, producing ## tornadoes in north central and northeast Alabama.||A break in the activity was then followed by a line of thunderstorms that dropped southeast through southern middle Tennessee into north central and northeast Alabama after Midnight through the early morning hours. The line produced tornadoes in southern middle Tennessee, a couple of which continued into northeast Alabama. Additional tornadoes occurred with the line in far northeast Alabama.||In addition, locally heavy rainfall from the slow-moving supercells produced flash flooding during the evening of the 8th, with several roadways covered with or barricaded due to hazardous driving conditions. This primarily affected locations in southeastern Madison County, northern Marshall County, and southwest Jackson County.

A tornado touched down on Grace Hill Lane, producing a brief path of damage behind a house and into a wooded area northeast of the Grace Hill Farms Paintball Facility. Here, the tornado snapped and uprooted several large oak trees, with a width of 90 yards and wind speed of 105 mph. The tornado then skipped northeast, producing sporadic hard and softwood tree damage along Cotton Belt Road and Patterson Hill Road. After crossing Alabama Highway 99, more sporadic tree damage was noted along and northeast of Chapman Hollow, Dupree Hollow, and Cabbage Ridge Roads. The tornado lifted in a field east of Cabbage Ridge Road just short of the Elk River.

A tornado tornado touched down west of New Bethel Road, uprooting and snapping several large softwood trees and collapsing more than half of a private aircraft hangar. The tornado continued north-northeast, uprooting more large trees and snapping large branches near homes along Shipley Hollow Road, which is where the tornado reached its maximum intensity of 105 mph. Shingles were displaced on a roof of a single family house. Sparse tree damage occurred just west of Old Scrouge Rd as the tornado lifted.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:44 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:16 UTC and running to 03:11 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:42 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), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:08 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

52 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.