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EF1 tornado in Clarke County, Alabama

Tornado April 28, 2014 · Clarke County, Alabama

EF1
Rating
0.3 mi
Path length
200 yd
Path width
$5K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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

NWS survey team found damage consistent with a small...weak tornado over central Clarke County to the south-southeast of Grove Hill. Damage indicated that the tornado tracked northeast for approximately 500 yards. The damage initially began as a straight line wind event. The damage became more convergent...denoted by the downed and snapped tree pattern...indicating a brief tornado. The damage returned to a more linear non-tornadic pattern and the degree of damage gradually decreased across an additional two mile long path.

The wider storm

A strong storm system brought record flooding along with severe thunderstorms that produced damaging winds and tornadoes to the region.

Began near Allen (31.5759, -87.7633).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 513179. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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