125 mph wind speeds reported in tornadoes

A pair of tornadoes that skipped across northwest Alabama on Thursday packed wind speeds of up to 125 mph at times, according to National Weather Service officials.

The strongest winds were in a twister that left a 9.6-mile path of destruction from Leighton to Rogersville, said Dave Nadler, a senior forecaster at the National Weather Service's Huntsville office. The path was 250 yards wide in some sections.

After touring the tornado damage Friday, Nadler determined the Leighton tornado was a category EF-2. Tornadoes are ranked from 0 to 5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with 5 being the most destructive.

Nadler said the tornado winds reached their peak as the storm destroyed one cabin and damaged three others at Doublehead Resort near Town Creek.

By the time the tornado reached Rogersville, winds had weakened to less than 75 mph.

Tim Troutman, warning coordination meteorologist at the Weather Service's Huntsville office, said a twister that left a 6-mile path of damage across western and central Lauderdale County was classified as an EF-1 tornado, with winds of up to 90 mph.

At least two homes were destroyed in Lauderdale and one was destroyed in Lawrence. In addition, at least 10 homes in Colbert, Lauderdale and Lawrence were damaged in the twisters.

Three homes were damaged near Loretto, Tenn., by a tornado that was spawned by the remnants of the west Lauderdale storm, weather officials said.

Two people with cuts and bruises from the west Lauderdale storm were the only injuries reported.

Mike Melton, director of the Colbert County Emergency Management Agency, said the damage and injury toll could have been more severe.

"We were lucky that a lot of the places struck were woods or fields. It came close to a lot of houses, but just barely missed them," he said.

"We're extremely lucky," said George Grabryan, director of the Florence-Lauderdale County Emergency Management Agency. "To have two tornadoes touch down and no one be seriously injured or killed is truly amazing."

Victims of the tornadoes worked Friday patching roofs and making other temporary home repairs in anticipation of more rain moving into northwest Alabama.

Some west Lauderdale residents complained they did not receive a warning before the tornado struck.

Michael Coyne, meteorologist in charge of the Huntsville weather service office, said the twister formed and touched down so quickly the agency was unable to issue a warning until it was already on the ground.

"There was a weak rotation on the radar, but nothing that indicated a tornado was forming," he said.

Nadler said weak tornadoes, such as the west Lauderdale twister, are more difficult to detect than powerful storms.

"The weak ones are not clear cut on radar and they can come down, lift back up and be gone in a matter of seconds," Nadler said.

Grabryan said the weather service did a good job alerting Shoals residents of the tornadoes.

"We were under a tornado watch, and they had warned that the storms could produce tornadoes."

The weather service and emergency managers are keeping watch on an approaching weather system that will move through the Tennessee Valley late today and early Sunday.

Coyne said the storm system could produce powerful thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com.