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EF1 tornado in St. Clair County, Alabama

Tornado January 23, 2012 · St. Clair County, Alabama

EF1
Rating
15.7 mi
Whole path
300 yd
Path width
1
Death
75
Injuries

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 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 initially touched down in central Jefferson county and tracked northeastward for 15.69 miles, before lifting in western St. Clair county. The tornado crossed into St. Clair county south of Will Keith Rd, near Mary Ann Ln, moving northeast with winds of 105 MPH. The tornado continued to damage homes and down trees, before crossing Interstate 59, 1.37 miles northeast of Exit 148, with a path width of 300 yds. To the east of Interstate 59, the tornado tracked through Argo, crossing U.S. Highway 11 north of Angus St, downing numerous trees and causing minor to moderate damage to several homes. One home was destroyed when a large tree fell. As the tornado continued northeast, several manufactured homes sustained minor damage along Hidden Valley Drive. The tornado lifted just northeast of Country Living Cir, where several more trees were uprooted.

The wider storm

An upper level low pressure system developed over the Great Plains and moved east across the Ohio River Valley, dragging a cold front through the lower Mississippi River Valley. As the cold front moved through Arkansas, a squall line formed, producing severe thunderstorms to areas west of Alabama. As the cold front progressed eastward, individual supercells developed in advance of the front and moved through Alabama during the early morning hours on January 23rd. Several long track supercells produced strong, long track tornadoes.

Began near Margaret (33.7105, -86.5251).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 364297. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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