A potent upper trough moved across the southeast states with numerous severe storms, including widespread wind damage and tornadoes. The tri-state area was under an enhanced to moderate risk of severe storms from the Storm Prediction Center.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS TAE wrote it up.
A potent upper trough moved across the southeast states with numerous severe storms, including widespread wind damage and tornadoes. The tri-state area was under an enhanced to moderate risk of severe storms from the Storm Prediction Center. Some of the tornadoes were significant and rated EF2. Unfortunately, one fatality occurred in southeast Alabama.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Tallahassee, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 18, 6:33 PM CST, 4 hours 42 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Tallahassee FL 833 PM EDT Sat Apr 18 2020 .UPDATE... No significant changes to the previous forecast appear necessary. We're watching with interest how convection across southern Louisiana will evolve overnight and into Sunday morning as the warm front lifts northward. The warm front placement will be crucial to how much activity the forecast area receives during the day on Sunday before a squall line arrives Sunday night. Currently, most models place most of the convection just a few rows of counties north of the forecast area, but any southward displacement would mean an increased risk of severe storms and flooding during the day across the northern tier of counties. There are a couple of models like the 12z NCEP ARW and 18z RGEM that are a little farther south than the consensus. We'll be watching for mesoscale trends through the overnight hours. && .PREV DISCUSSION [640 PM EDT]... .NEAR TERM [Tonight]... A weak front stalls in the vicinity of the I-10 corridor this afternoon. This will be the focus for showers and thunderstorms until around sunset. SPC maintains a marginal risk, so isolated strong to severe thunderstorms are possible. Model soundings indicate SB CAPE and deep layer shear up to 2.5k J/Kg and 60 kts, respectively. While this is robust, the lack of forcing and drier air advecting in aloft will limit coverage. The primary threats are isolated damaging wind gusts and large hail, given DCAPE approaching 900 J/Kg and steep mid-level lapse rates. The main concern overnight will be the potential for patchy fog across most of the area outside the I-75 corridor. While locally dense fog is possible, deep layer moisture should prevent more widespread dense fog, despite the proximity of the stalled front. .SHORT TERM [Sunday through Monday]... Anyone that's spent any time forecasting severe weather in the deep south learns pretty quickly to not trust warm fronts, and a strong warm front is exactly what we'll deal with for much of Sunday. After 12Z the boundary that stalls near the I-10 corridor today surges back north with a plume of very moisture rich air. CAPE values in the vicinity of the front over SE AL and SW GA approach 3000 J/KG by late morning so any convection near the warm front could become surface based and quite severe very quickly from late morning into early afternoon. The general trend from most of our larger scale models is for the warm front to lift north of our CWA by mid-afternoon, but a few convective-allowing mesoscale models effectively hold it up further south due to all the rain generated along the boundary. This evolution will have a huge impact on how Sunday plays out. The most likely scenario is the warm front lifts north leaving an unstable but weakly sheared and somewhat capped airmass in it's wake for late afternoon into early evening. Less likely but more impactful scenario is the warm front stalls further south prolonging the severe weather threat. Stay tuned. The main event in terms of severe weather coverage still looks to be Sunday night into early Monday. Deep layer shear remains high and while the shear in the low levels is not overly impressive the combination of high CAPE and sufficient shear maintains a significant (10% hatched) tornado threat north of I-10. Otherwise all modes of severe weather including destructive straight line winds are in play. Severe storm threat will likely persist through midday Monday over the far southeast before drier air wins out. .LONG TERM [Monday Night Through Saturday]... Northwest/confluent flow aloft will reinforce high pressure at the surface through mid-week. This will help keep our weather dry through the period and with a drier airmass in place we'll see a pretty big diurnal swing from cooler pleasant mornings to warm mainly sunny afternoons. Guidance temps look fine throughout. The next system on the wave train approaches Wednesday Night and likely crosses the area on Thursday. Better and better model consensus that this will be another impactful system for our area. Degree of moisture return/buoyancy coupled with elevated shear parameters highly suggestive of more severe weather. Like the system tomorrow the details will depend on mesoscale effects like convective boundaries so it's far too early for details. But the potential is there so keep your guard up. .AVIATION... [Through 00Z Monday] Cigs/vsbys lower to IFR/LIFR by 08Z except ABY with MVFR. Gradual improvement to MVFR cigs expected Sunday. Highest chance of TSRA at ABY/DHN Sunday. Winds shift from light and variable tonight to southerly on Sunday, AOB 10 kts. .MARINE... Marine conditions begin deteriorating Sun afternoon ahead of a potent system that will be accompanied with severe weather. Cautionary-to-advisory levels are expected through Mon with seas reaching 6-7 ft. Conditions steadily improve thereafter, before winds and seas ramp up again ahead of the Thurs system. Isolated thunderstorms are possible through Sunday with a gusty line of storms likely Sunday Night into early Monday. .FIRE WEATHER... Outside of high dispersions across much of the area on Sunday, hazardous fire weather conditions are not expected. .HYDROLOGY... Model and WPC forecasts keep the heaviest QPF north of the area with this next system but we could still see an isolated flash flood threat where storms persist. It will likely take around three inches of rain or more in three hours to cause flash flooding. Area rivers, especially the Flint and it's tributaries along with the Withlacoochee River, are running higher than normal and heavy rain upstream will cause further rises. Some minor flooding is possible by mid- week depending on exactly where the heaviest rain falls. The next big rain maker swings through the deep south Wednesday Night into Thursday. Additional heavy rainfall is likely with this system, especially across AL/GA so more rises are likely on the rivers. Folks with interests along our rivers are urged to monitor forecasts through the week into the weekend. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation is not requested. However, spotters are always encouraged to safely report significant weather conditions when they occur (while following all local, state, and CDC guidelines) by calling the office or tweeting us @NWSTallahassee. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Tallahassee 65 84 67 85 58 / 20 50 90 40 0 Panama City 68 80 69 81 62 / 20 50 90 20 0 Dothan 63 81 65 81 55 / 20 70 90 10 0 Albany 62 81 66 81 55 / 20 70 100 20 0 Valdosta 64 82 68 82 58 / 10 50 90 40 0 Cross City 66 84 68 82 61 / 20 20 70 70 10 Apalachicola 68 79 69 79 62 / 20 30 90 30 0 && .TAE WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... FL...None. GA...None. AL...None. GM...None. && UPDATE...DVD NEAR TERM...LF SHORT TERM...Johnstone LONG TERM...Johnstone AVIATION...LF MARINE...Johnstone FIRE WEATHER...LF HYDROLOGY...Johnstone
The Eglin Afb radar (KEVX), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 05:15 UTC.
10 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A tree fell onto a home and some shingles were removed from the roof. Additional trees were blown down in the yard. Winds were estimated at 80 mph.
Trees were blown down with minor roof damage in Graceville.
Trees were blown down in the Campbellton area.
A tree was blown down onto a power line near 13th and Monument Ave.
A tree was down across Bloxham Cutoff Road near Ben Stoutamire Road.
A tree was down blocking half of the road at West Tennessee Street and Blountstown Street.
Numerous trees were blown down.
A tree was blown down near N County Road 53 and NW County Road 348.
A tree was blown down onto Highway 51.
A tree was blown down on SW Highway 55A near 490th Street.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Florida in 2020Every state in 2020This day in weather historyWarnings in Florida, April 2020
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 889423, 889424, 889425, 889426, 889427, 889428, 889429, 889430, 889431, 889432.