EF1 tornado, Poplar Spgs to Jones Chapel, Alabama, January 30, 2013

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF1

Date

January 30, 2013

Touchdown

6:01 AM CST (12:01 UTC)

Lifted

6:06 AM CST (12:06 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

6.4 miles (10.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

Counties

Winston and Cullman counties

Touchdown point

34.208, -87.180

Lift-off point

34.236, -87.074

Record number

1301300601-01

42 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Mobile home with roof removed, along with approximately 5 trees snapped. Width of damage 100 yards.
• inflow. One tree snapped and several limbs down.
• Partial loss of roof and trees snapped.
• Approximately 5 trees snapped, pointing 30 degrees.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Ahead of a strong cold front, a quasi linear convective system (QLCS) with embedded supercells moved eastward across Mississippi. Ahead of the line of thunderstorms, southerly flow increased, bringing moisture northward and increasing shear. This resulted in increased surface instabilities across much of the area, allowing storms to become surface based. Several tornadoes and widespread thunderstorm wind damage occurred across much of the area. In addition, strong gradient winds ahead of the strengthening system brought down power lines and caused minor structural damage. Heavy rainfall rates caused isolated flash flooding.

A long-lived quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) tracked rapidly eastward across Tennessee through the early morning hours of the 30th. Numerous tornadoes impacted middle Tennessee with this line, and one EF-1 tornado also struck Winston into Cullman Counties in north Alabama. Numerous other reports of thunderstorm wind damage were received. Very strong wind energy aloft was associated with this system along with an unseasonably warm and moist air mass.

An EF1 tornado touched down just west of the intersection of County Road 8 and County Road 3074 north northeast of Poplar Springs, downing several trees. In addition, a portion of the roof of a mobile home was thrown one quarter mile. At this point, the width was near 100 yards wide. The tornado tracked east northeast along Slick Ford Road, downing hundreds of trees. As the tornado crossed Smith Lake near Cove Road South, six homes sustained roof damage; one severely. The tornado widened to 1000 yards wide as it crossed the lake near County Road 61. As it tracked along the lake, thousands of trees were downed causing damage to at least a dozen additional residences. Also, several boat houses were destroyed. The tornado weakened as it crossed County Road 63, dissipating near the intersection of County Road 41 and County Road 52.

An EF1 tornado touched down just north of Addison along County Road 41, just north of Hunter Rd with winds of 70-80mph snapping many softwood trees. The tornado tracked east northeast and destroyed a small airplane hangar at the Addison Municipal Airport. As it tracked parallel to County Road 41, it continued to down trees with winds of 90mph. Just passed County Road 130, the tornado removed a portion of the roof from a residence. Portions of a metal roof were uplifted from an outbuilding along County Road 3725, causing minor tree damage. The tornado continued east northeast, crossing into Cullman County (See Storm Data WFO Huntsville) just south of County Road 1043. The tornado remained on the ground for an additional 2.14 miles in Cullman County.

A tornado crossed the Winston and Cullman county line just south of county road 1043, causing minor tree damage and destroying a barn on county road 1038. The tornado then strengthened to an EF-1 with winds around 90 MPH and destroyed a mobile home along county road 1043 just east of county road 1038. The tornado continued east-northeast. lifting near county road 1047. The survey was conducted by NWS Birmingham since the tornado initially touched down in Winston County.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

17 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 11:44 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 12:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:46 UTC and running to 13:03 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 06:09 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 116 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:02 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

44 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.