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EF0 tornado in Colbert County, Alabama

Tornado March 18, 2013 · Colbert County, Alabama

EF0
Rating
1.6 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
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 EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

A weak and short-lived tornado touched down about 2 miles northwest of Leighton, snapping trees near the intersection of 6th Street and Hatton School Road. Just to the east of this location, large pines were uprooted and snapped, and minor structural and roof damage to a residence occurred. A car port was lifted and destroyed and the undercarriage from a single-wide mobile home was pulled out and thrown into a nearby tree. The tornado continued to track east, uprooting trees in an open field and additional large cedar trees were snapped along its path at Shaw Cemetery. The tornado continued just a bit farther east before apparently lifting just east of Shaw Road, just north of 6th Street. Sporadic wind damage, possibly due to inflow winds was observed around the narrow tornado track with several trees snapped on either side of 6th Street nearing the Lawrence County line.

The wider storm

An active severe weather episode was produced by two quasi-linear convective systems. The first developed during the midday hours across middle Tennessee into northwest Alabama, while another which originated as a small convective cluster in central Arkansas rapidly intensified and raced eastward through northern Mississippi into north Alabama during the afternoon hours. Numerous reports of wind damage, large hail and four tornadoes. Two of the tornadoes injured ten people and produced significant damage to mobile homes, trees, and power poles.

Began near Underwood Xrds (34.7293, -87.4954).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 439535. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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