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EF0 tornado in Clay County, Alabama

Tornado January 3, 2023 · Clay County, Alabama

EF0
Rating
6.4 mi
Path length
300 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southwest Clay County and determined that it was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum winds near 85 mph. The tornado touched down along the eastern slopes of Horne Mountain in the Talladega National Forest. Most of the timber damage was uprooted softwood trees in the National Forest along forest roads , but there were also some uprooted along Horns Valley Road and County Roads 7 and 18, with one tree falling on a barn. A few more softwood trees were uprooted along Highway 77 near Antioch Road, before the tornado quickly dissipated.

The wider storm

A long-duration severe weather event occurred from the late morning hours of Tuesday, January 3rd to the early morning hours of Wednesday, January 4th. Several rounds of rain and thunderstorms impacted Central Alabama, producing tornadoes, damaging straight-line winds, quarter size hail, and flooding.

Began near Gage (33.2350, -86.0693).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

12 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1074303. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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