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EF1 tornado in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

Tornado April 2, 2009 · Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

EF1

Rating

0.6 mi

Path length

150 yd

Path width

$5K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 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 near the intersection of Lesueur Road and Old Fayette Road, near the Samantha community. It then moved northeastward for about one half of a mile, and lifted just north of Brady Montgomery Road. The most significant damage occurred as the tornado crossed Brady Montgomery Road. Numerous hardwood and softwood trees were snapped off and uprooted.

The wider storm

A cold front pushing through the southeastern states brought several rounds of severe thunderstorms to central Alabama. The storms produced widespread damaging winds and two tornadoes.

Began near Samantha (33.4360, -87.6440).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 Lamar County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 163075. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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