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EF1 tornado in Dallas County, Alabama

Tornado April 2, 2024 · Dallas County, Alabama

EF1
Rating
8.3 mi
Whole path
600 yd
Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Dallas County → Chilton County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 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

The tornado began in a wooded area just east of the Perry/Dallas County line. It quickly reached its peak intensity of 95 mph as it crossed County Road 272 where dozens of trees were snapped or uprooted, blocking the roadway for over a quarter of a mile as it paralleled the road. Additional trees were downed along County Roads 290 and 305, but the tornado weakened as it approached Plantersville. Still, several trees were downed along Dallas County 560 and Highway 22 in Plantersville. The tornado then crossed into Chilton County.

The wider storm

A surface low positioned over Lake Michigan moved an associated cold front through Central Alabama during the evening of April 2. While a widespread severe weather outbreak unfolded to the north, Alabama saw more concentrated areas of severe weather across northern and central counties in the state. After 10 PM CDT April 2, a small mesoscale convective vortex developed within a broken line of thunderstorms, spawning four tornadoes and areas of wind damage across northern Dallas, southern Chilton, and central and eastern Coosa counties. Three of the tornadoes were rated EF1, with damage primarily consisting of trees and sporadic small structures.

Began near Plantersville (32.6410, -87.0398).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1161490. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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