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EF0 tornado in Marshall County, Alabama

Tornado March 18, 2013 · Marshall County, Alabama

EF0
Rating
12.2 mi
Whole path
300 yd
Path width
10
Injuries

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Marshall County → Marshall County → Dekalb County → Etowah 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 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 tornado touched down just east of U.S. Highway 431 in Boaz just south of Bruce Road producing minor structural damage to businesses along Highway 431. The tornado tracked east-southeast crossing McVille Road and Alabama Highway 168 causing minor tree damage. The tornado intensified and widened to 300 yards as it crossed Bethsaida Road, when it uprooted and snapped numerous trees as it approached Alewine Road, just north of Ellis Road. The tornado then crossed into Etowah County about a half of a mile west of Oak Drive.

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 Boaz (34.2048, -86.1525).

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 439598. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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