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EF1 tornado in Lee County, Alabama

Tornado February 28, 2009 · Lee County, Alabama

EF1
Rating
0.3 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
$65K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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 touched down briefly near the intersection of US-280 and CR-147, near an area known as The Bottle. One building sustained heavy damage when its metal roof was peeled off. One car was overturned at a used car dealership and a few trees were snapped or uprooted.

The wider storm

A slow moving cold front brought an extended period of severe weather and heavy rain, that lasted about 24 hours. The storms produced damaging winds, large hail, flooding rains, and at least 4 tornadoes.

Began near Ridge Grove (32.6785, -85.4936).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Lee CountyEF0 Shelby CountyEF0 Hale CountyEF0 Tallapoosa County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 156732. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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