EF1 tornado, Pride to Elgin, Alabama, April 5, 2025

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

April 5, 2025

Touchdown

10:25 PM CDT (03:25 UTC)

Lifted

10:57 PM CDT (03:57 UTC)

On the ground

32 minutes

Path length

28.8 miles (46.3 km)

Path width

280 yards (256 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

5

Property damage

$3.4 million

Counties

Colbert and Lauderdale counties

Touchdown point

34.710, -87.778

Lift-off point

34.861, -87.334

Record number

2504052125-01

69 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Tree fell on home and family got the warning and was in the basement
• Panel lofted. Tree limbs snapped in background
• Multiple tres down fell on powerlines and snapped them
• End point for tornado evident on drone imagery via Lauderdale County EMA, showing tree damage lifting through the canopy before damage ends to the east.

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

A line of severe thunderstorms roared east-northeast through north Alabama during the evening of the 5th into the early morning hours of the 6th. The line produced four tornadoes in north Alabama and several reports of wind damage, particularly in northwest Alabama. Also, flash flooding resulted in multiple water rescues including 10 hikers in Bankhead National Forest, a woman and two childeren swept off of a road in Lawrence County, and a woman in Cullman County.

A tornado touched down near Pride, where numerous trees were damaged or uprooted, and a small farm building sustained minor roof damage. The tornado continued eastward across Little Bear Creek, where widespread tree damage was observed, including several instances where falling trees caused structural damage to single-family homes. Additional tree damage was caused by the tornado as it moved through Sheffield before it lifted just west of Highway 43.

The tornado touched down just south of U.S. Highway 72 near Hawk Pride Mountain Road before crossing the highway and tracking along County Road 24 into southern Tuscumbia. Most damage indicators consisted of uprooted trees; however, one location featured a snapped hardwood trunk, supporting the peak wind estimate of 105 mph. The tornado continued east into Muscle Shoals, where it caused significant damage in the Holiday Trailer Park area. Several large hardwood trees were uprooted and fell onto residential units, resulting in five reported injuries. The tornado tracked just north of Northwest Alabama Regional Airport turning northward and passing through Ford City and eventually across Wilson Lake into Lauderdale County. Damage was primarily to trees with several uprooted trees, split trees, and large limbs downed in this area.

A tornado crossed Wilson Lake from Colbert County and moved into the Aqua Vista community with several trees uprooted and large limbs snapped. The tornado tracked to the east-northeast. Drone imagery courtesy of Lauderdale County EMA supplemented the ground survey for areas inaccessible by roads. With this data, it was determined that the tornado then tracked north of County Road 31 where several more trees were uprooted before impacting a neighborhood off of Bull Run road. There, several houses were missing shingles and large portions of fencing. Outdoor sheds had a collapse of most walls and tree damage was also present. The tornado then crossed County Road 33, snapping and uprooting more hardwood trees, and then crossed U.S. Highway 72 just southeast of Elgin, AL. Drone imagery indicated areas of trees uprooted or with large areas of limbs snapped as the tornado crossed Second Creek before lifting just south of Toonersville, where damage to the tree canopy was noted.

Aerial UAV-drone data provided by Lauderdale County Emergency Management confirmed that an EF-1 tornado tracked from the Center Star area to near Pine Haven Shores.|The damage path began near County Road 107 and tracked east-southeast through the Bluewater Creek area. Numerous hardwood trees were uprooted, and a farm shed sustained roof damage near County Road 33. Additional uprooted trees were observed east of Bluewater Creek, extending through the intersection of Highway 101 and U.S. Highway 72. Sparse damage was noted north of U.S. Highway 72, approaching the Pine Haven Shores area, where the tornado dissipated.

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

34 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:51 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:30 UTC and running to 05:45 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:56 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 Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:25 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 2025 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

26 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.