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EF0 tornado in Mobile County, Alabama

Tornado January 9, 2024 · Mobile County, Alabama

EF0
Rating
3.0 mi
Path length
20 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 20 yards (0.01 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

The tornado began likely just west of Novatan Rd south of Tanner Williams rd. in the forest based off of TDS from KMOB. Exact location is difficult to find and may need satellite imagery at a later date. The tornado quickly moved east across Novatan Rd where it caused a few softwoods to lose large limbs. Sporadic nature of the damage supported lower bound wind estimates for the damage. A small shed was also tossed at this point. Tornado continued northeast where it produced light sporadic damage to trees. The tornado crossed Tanner Williams Road near Rigby Rd causing minor damage to trees and brought down a traffic light. Sporadic damage continues to the northeast towards Snow Road where damage became too sporadic to determine a convergent path and the tornado likely lifted. A weak discontinuous path may be possible further east; however, damage was either too weak or too small to sporadic for ground surveys to determine a path after Snow Road.

The wider storm

Multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms moved across southwest Alabama starting during the late evening hours of January 8th and continued through early morning hours of the 9th. This system produced four EF-0's and two EF-1's in Alabama.

Began near Tanner Williams (30.7035, -88.3304).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1156680. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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