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EF1 tornado in Dallas County, Alabama

Tornado April 6, 2025 · Dallas County, Alabama

EF1
Rating
1.3 mi
Path length
400 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 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

This comma-head tornado touched down on the southern edge of an

open field off of Dallas County Road 143, just north of Sixmile

Creek. There were a few large pine limbs snapped at this location,

while to the north side of this open field it caused more

significant tree damage with a few trees snapped or uprooted. It

moved north-northeastward, intensifying and growing quickly before

reaching its maximum intensity of a 400-yard-wide 95 MPH EF-1 as

it crossed CR 405. A van and a truck were overturned in a church

parking lot, with the truck tumbling about 50 feet and the van

tumbling into, but not snapping a power pole. The tornado

continued to uproot and snap trees as it moved northward for

several hundred yards, but then began to lose strength just as

quickly as it had intensified. The tornado weakened as it curled

under the comma-head and dissipated along CR 37 just north of

Gibbs Rd.

The wider storm

Deep-layer ridging over the Southeast United States held up a trough over the Central United States for the first few days of April, leading to a prolonged and significant severe weather and flooding event from Texas to Ohio and West Virginia along a stalled boundary. As the ridge began to retreat eastward, a cold front slowly progressed through Central Alabama on April 6, with an all-hazards weather event unfolding. Slow moving thunderstorms from early morning to late afternoon resulted in flooding issues across northwestern counties and the Birmingham, Montgomery, and Auburn/Opelika areas. Additionally, two brief tornadoes were confirmed, and there were a few isolated reports of hail and wind damage. Late that evening, a motorist in Hale County drove into a downed tree, resulting in a fatality.

Began near Sadis (32.2907, -86.9572).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1233562. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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