EF1 tornado, Pisgah to Browntown, 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

5:08 AM CDT (10:08 UTC)

Lifted

5:17 AM CDT (10:17 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

6.1 miles (9.8 km)

Path width

241 yards (220 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$138,000

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

34.695, -85.856

Lift-off point

34.612, -85.830

Record number

2405090408-01

101 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 143 mph.

• Camper overturned and numerous trees snapped
• Bleachers tossed 40-50 yards
• Several large oak trees were uprooted and fell onto a single family residence, causing complete failure of external walls.
• 34.70538N, 86.10440W, Old Larkinsville Road.

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 County Road 432 north of County Road 88 where several large limbs were snapped off of hardwood trees. The tornado then tracked south-southeast, just west of Pisgah, causing sparse tree limb damage before crossing County Road 372 and uprooting and snapping several trees near a residence. At this point, the tornado tracked southeast along County Road 58, uprooting several trees along the way, before it crossed Highway 71 and tracked southward. The track was more difficult to identify south of County Road 425, as it intersects with the Henegar EF-3 tornado which occurred the evening of the 8th. The track was identifiable once more along Highway 40 where it continued southward before lifting along County Road 392 with only sparse tree damage noted.

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 Slight 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.

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:07 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.