Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2025

EF0 tornado, Garmon Xrds, Alabama, April 6, 2025

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Barbour County on April 6, 2025, touching down at 10:21 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
April 6, 2025
Touchdown
10:21 PM CDT (03:21 UTC)
Lifted
10:23 PM CDT (03:23 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Barbour County
Touchdown point
31.901, -85.623
Lift-off point
31.908, -85.622
Record number
2504062121-01

The damage survey

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 60 mph.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

Deep-layer ridging over the Southeast United States held up a trough over the Central United States for the first few days of April, leading to a prolonged and significant severe weather and flooding event from Texas to Ohio and West Virginia along a stalled boundary. As the ridge began to retreat eastward, a cold front slowly progressed through Central Alabama on April 6, with an all-hazards weather event unfolding. Slow moving thunderstorms from early morning to late afternoon resulted in flooding issues across northwestern counties and the Birmingham, Montgomery, and Auburn/Opelika areas. Additionally, two brief tornadoes were confirmed, and there were a few isolated reports of hail and wind damage. Late that evening, a motorist in Hale County drove into a downed tree, resulting in a fatality.

The National Weather Service surveyed damage consistent with a|low-end EF-0 in northwest Barbour County. The tornado touched|down just west of CR 9 near the Mays Rd intersection. The tornado|continued north crossing Star Hill Rd where a small outdoor shed|was damaged along with a few softwood trees. The tornado quickly|dissipated shortly thereafter.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:02 UTC22:20 UTCTornado WatchBMX
20:11 UTC22:15 UTCFlood AdvisoryBMX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:50 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 air that afternoon

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.

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 00:00Z

3.4 hours before the tornado, 179 km from the path. April 7, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 2025-04-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 278 joules per kilogram, CIN -29, lifted condensation level 502 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 2025-04-07The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 298 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 67 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
278 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-29 J/kg
Surface CAPE
456 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
502 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
67 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
298 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
194 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 12:00Z

8.6 hours after it, 179 km from the path. April 7, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 2025-04-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 538 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 2025-04-07The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -1 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 80 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
538 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
80 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-1 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:23 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
03:21 UTCTORNADO2 Nne Boot HillBarbour, ALAn EF-0 tornado was confirmed in the Star Hill Rd area of Barbour County. Max winds 60 mph. Path length 0.48 miles.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 6, 2025

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 61:33 AM CDTEF1Marshall, AL1.0175$120,000
April 62:26 AM CDTEF1Newton, MS8.5150
April 62:51 AM CDTEF1Jefferson Davis, MS1.4300$75,000
April 63:35 AM CDTEF2Kemper, MS1.9300$800,000
April 63:57 AM CDTEF2Smith, MS3.2500$1.2 million
April 64:43 AM CDTEF2Jones, MS12.42001$2.0 million
April 65:13 AM CDTEF0Jones, MS4.650
April 65:57 AM CDTEF2Forrest, MS6.5400$1.0 million
April 66:42 AM CDTEF1Clarke, MS1.0150$20,000
April 66:54 AM CDTEF2Lauderdale, MS to AL5.3800$600,000
April 68:58 AM CDTEF1Wilcox, AL0.575
April 68:59 AM CDTEF1Wilcox, AL1.8200
April 610:13 AM CDTEF1Dallas, AL1.3400
April 62:43 PM CDTEF0Jackson, MS2.725
April 63:56 PM EDTEF1Muscogee, GA2.6350
April 65:45 PM EDTEF1Bibb, GA9.2450

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.