Home / Alabama / Henry

EF1 tornado in Henry County, Alabama

Tornado March 1, 2007 · Henry County, Alabama

EF1

Rating

37.0 mi

Whole path

150 yd

Path width

Injuries

$13.8M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Dale County → Henry County → Clay County, Georgia; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

After the EF-1 tornado crossed into western Henry County from eastern Dale County, it traveled northeast causing sporadic tree damage along County Roads 7 and 40. It then tore through the Bethlehem community, and damaged 51 mobile homes and destroyed 28 others. Two persons were injured when the tornado damaged their mobile home. The tornado overturned a semi on State Road 10 before lifting. The tornado descended two miles southwest of the community of Otho along County Road 97. It destroyed 14 homes and damaged 27 others in Otho. Numerous trees and utility poles were also blown down there and in the Stonebridge subdivision. The tornado exited the northeast part of the county at Lake Eufaula. Henry County was declared a federal disaster area.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms developed ahead of a warm front over the Florida Panhandle and moved northeast across southeast Alabama and into extreme southwest Georgia during the afternoon hours of March 1. The strongest tornado, classified an EF-4, killed nine and injured 50 in Enterprise, Alabama.

Began near Abbeville (31.4637, -85.3747).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF4 Coffee County 9 dead

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 22788. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.