The initial damage was observed in the Cave Springs area near County Road (CR) 54, where large tree branches were downed as the tornado tracked east-southeast. Additional indicators of tree damage were found near the intersection of CR 53 and CR 147. The tornado then progressed along Highway 117 into Stevenson, where trees were observed to be uprooted or had large branches broken. As the primary damage indicators were related to trees, and considering the above-average rainfall experienced in May, the estimated wind speeds were slightly reduced to account for highly saturated ground conditions.

An upper level disturbance moving east into northern Alabama and southern middle Tennessee (north of a slow moving frontal boundary edge north from central Alabama) interacted with an unstable atmosphere during the early to mid afternoon hours to produce a line of strong to severe thunderstorms that exited in Georgia between 6 and 7 PM. This line of storms produced damaging winds in portions of northern Alabama and a tornado in the Cave Springs area of Jackson county.||An additional line of strong to severe thunderstorms developed as the frontal boundary moved north into northern Alabama later in the evening before exiting the area after midnight. This line of storms produced sporadic damaging winds, particularly in Lawrence county and a few instances of large hail. Some aerial flooding occurred as well in portions of DeKalb county.