TornadoLookup

Home / Alabama / Dekalb

EF0 tornado in Dekalb County, Alabama

Tornado April 12, 2020 · Dekalb County, Alabama

EF0
Rating
3.6 mi
Path length
110 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 110 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 tornado uprooted several trees along and just east of North Valley Avenue. Large branches were snapped off trees as the tornado tracked east of CR 822 before destroying a small barn shed along CR 853.

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 Collinsville (34.2744, -85.8560).

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 Cullman CountyEF1 Dekalb County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 886310. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.