EF1 tornado, Princeton to Skyline, Alabama, May 9, 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 9, 2024

Touchdown

4:31 AM CDT (09:31 UTC)

Lifted

4:32 AM CDT (09:32 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

108 yards (99 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$155,000

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

34.851, -86.239

Lift-off point

34.849, -86.234

Record number

2405090331-01

110 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.

• Hardwood and softwood trees uprooted
• Numerous uprooted softwoods in this area as well
• Tree on home, mix of soft woods and hardwoods uprooted, roof slightly lifted, trees fell E to NE
• Hardwood tree snapped at base.

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 brief tornado touched down on a ridgetop northwest of Princeton, and then crossed a field as it uprooted and snapped trees before crossing County Road 508. At this location, numerous hardwood and softwood trees were knocked down. Some of the hardwood trees uprooted here were 6-7 feet in diameter, with several pine trees snapped about 10 feet above the ground. It was at this point that the tornado was the strongest, with up to 104 mph winds. Also at this location, a manufactured home (single-wide) sustained major damage, with the home shifting about 10-15 feet back from its original location. There were no tie-downs for the home noted, but more than half of the roof was destroyed with insulation strewn for about 30 yards into the trees behind the home. Further south and east of this location, the tornado dissipated as it crossed over the terrain just east of Lick Fork.

A tornado touched down about 0.5 miles northwest of the intersection of Old Mill Creek Road and County Road 243. High resolution satellite imagery in this area indicated multiple trees were uprooted. The tornado continued southeast to just north of the intersection of County Road 243 and Alabama Highway 79. The tornado uprooted and snapped trees at this location, one of which fell on a home causing damage to the roof structure. On the east side of Highway 79, further spotty damage occurred. Here, the tornado uprooted and snapped trees before lifting approximately one third of a mile east of Highway 79.

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 08:05 UTC and running to 13:51 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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.

Scottsburo (4A6), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:28 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

18 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.