EF1 Tornado — Marshall, Alabama

2009-04-19 · near Little New York, Marshall, Alabama

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado touched down just south of Gin Road in the Asbury community. A mobile home was completely destroyed with the content blown 40 yards and the frame blown 60 yards. Tragically, one occupant suffered fatal injuries with another suffering life threatening injuries. The tornado continued to track northeast destroying one large chicken house and damaging several others. Several barns and outbuildings sustained substantial damage. The tornado weakened as it continued to move northeast before lifting near Asbury Road.

Wider weather episode

A strong low pressure system tracking northeast from the southern Ozarks into the Ohio Valley brought a cold front into the central Tennessee Valley during the late afternoon and evening hours of the 19th. Supercells erupted across northern Mississippi, moving into far northwest Alabama shortly before 5 pm CDT. Initially, these storms were large hail producers, with up to baseball sized hail reported in the town of Red Bay in Franklin County. As the early evening progressed, this supercell tracked into Lawrence and Morgan Counties producing wind damage and at least six tornadoes as it moved east. A male individual was killed in the town of Priceville in Morgan County when a tree was knocked down onto his trailer home. The thunderstorms evolved into a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) as they moved into Marshall and DeKalb Counties. Another tornado developed rapidly in the community of Asbury in Marshall County, killing one and critically injurying another when their mobile home was destroyed. The QLCS progressed into DeKalb County producing additional tornado damage.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.3572, -86.1591)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 159800. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.