EF1 tornado, Alfalfa to Prairieville, Alabama, May 22, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

May 22, 2026

Touchdown

10:43 AM CDT (15:43 UTC)

Lifted

10:50 AM CDT (15:50 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.7 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Marengo and Hale counties

Touchdown point

32.500, -87.746

Lift-off point

32.526, -87.724

Highest wind the damage implies

95 mph

Surveyed by

NWS BMX

The office's name for it

Sparks Road Tornado

Survey last edited

May 23, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

A tornado developed along Sparks Road, east of Demopolis, near the Marengo County/Hale County line, where several hardwood trees were snapped and uprooted, and a residence had siding damage either from wind or fallen trees. The tornado then moved northeast and impacted homes just off Highway 80 near Yellow Creek Road. Shingles and siding were removed from a couple of homes, a shed was destroyed, and general yard items were strewn. Perhaps the most eye-catching item was the displacement and flipping of a box truck and a pontoon boat. The tornado then crossed Highway 80 with minimal signs of damage and came to an end just past the Hale County line, along Mount Olive Road, where tree branches were broken.

Written by NWS BMX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

31 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• Wind blew in garage door, blew north door 20 ft out on driveway

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

Numerous showers and thunderstorms occurred across Central Alabama during the late morning to early afternoon of May 22. Enough shear and instability were present to promote the development of small, low-topped supercells within a tropical environment. A few of these cells produced brief rotation, and three brief tornadoes occurred in Marengo and Tuscaloosa counties.

A tornado developed along Sparks Road, east of Demopolis, near the Marengo County/Hale County line, where several hardwood trees were snapped and uprooted, and a residence had siding damage either from wind or fallen trees. The tornado then moved northeast and impacted homes just off Highway 80 near Yellow Creek Road. Shingles and siding were removed from a couple of homes, a shed was destroyed, and general yard items were strewn. Perhaps the most eye-catching item was the displacement and flipping of a box truck and a pontoon boat. The tornado then crossed Highway 80 with minimal signs of damage and came to an end just past the Hale County line, along Mount Olive Road, where tree branches were broken. Maximum winds were estimated at 95 mph.

An EF1 tornado entered Hale County from Marengo County came to an end just past the Hale County line, along Mount Olive Road, where tree branches were broken. Damage in Hale County was of EF0 intensity.

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.

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 12:49 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 Birmingham radar (KBMX), 116 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:45 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 2026 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

11 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.