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EF1 tornado in Cullman County, Alabama

Tornado April 12, 2020 · Cullman County, Alabama

EF1
Rating
5.4 mi
Path length
300 yd
Path width
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 touched down just west of Beech Grove Road just south of Good Hope before crossing Interstate 65 near mile marker 302 where dozens of trees were snapped or uprooted. The tornado continued on an east-northeast track crossing County Road 490 and County Road 573 uprooting dozens more trees. As the tornado neared Highway 31 along Day Gap Road, it intensified and removed the roof from a single wide trailer and caused more concentrated tree damage. The tornado crossed Highway 31 and continued to the east-northeast causing damage to a gas station and uprooting or snapping several more trees. The tornado lifted just east of County Road 599.

The wider storm

Heavy rainfall occurred across the entire NWS Huntsville County Warning area, as well as damage from thunderstorm winds and a few tornadoes.

While heavy rainfall reports were spread out across the CWFA, the most significant flash flooding occurred in Fort Payne and surrounding areas in Northeast Alabama.

Intense rainfall of 6-6.5 inches fell in DeKalb County along Big Wills Creek.

A new Flood of Record crest of 17.94 feet occurred, surpassing the old Flood of Record (14.36) by a whopping 3.5 feet! More than 50 roads were shut down, with extensive flooding that occurred on Hwy 35 leading up to the Hwy 35/I459 interchange.

Began near Good Hope (34.0736, -86.8747).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Cullman CountyEF2 Marshall CountyEF1 Cullman CountyEF1 Marshall CountyEF1 Dekalb CountyEF0 Dekalb County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 886296. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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