EF1 tornado in Cullman County, Alabama

This tornado was originally the Arley/Helicon EF-2 tornado that originated in Winston County. It continued across County Road 986, causing significant damage to a barn and snapping several hardwood and softwood trees. The tornado continued northeast, continued to snap trees and destroyed another shed as it crossed CR 946 and 939. It appeared to lift northeast of CR 939.

A tornado outbreak occurred during the evening hours of the 29th into the early morning hours of the 30th. A very mild and unstable air mass was in place along with a strong southwesterly upper level jet. These ingredients combined with a cold front and pre-frontal trough sweeping from west to east across the area sparked scattered supercell thunderstorms during the evening, a few of which were tornadic. This was followed by a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) that occurred with the trough, which also was responsible for severe weather. Beneficial rainfall occurred with this system with 2-5 inches reported. Some of the rainfall fell fast enough to produce brief flash flooding in the Florence area during the evening.