EF0 tornado, Lawngate to Athens, Alabama, December 29, 2019

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   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

EF0

Date

December 29, 2019

Touchdown

6:50 PM CST (00:50 UTC)

Lifted

6:57 PM CST (00:57 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.1 miles (8.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Limestone County

Touchdown point

34.754, -87.078

Lift-off point

34.795, -87.004

Record number

1912291850-01

32 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 89 mph.

• metal garage station sign bent over
• location of where the open metal shed was located before blown NE and hitting the metal fence. various items under the shed were also pushed NE.
• leaning and cracked it at the base but not snapped
• several large tree branches down facing NE

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

The first of two lines of thunderstorms arrived in northwest Alabama during the early afternoon hours producing a couple reports of wind damage. The second and more intense line of thunderstorms arrived during the early evening hours, and produced several reports of wind damage, one tornado in Limestone County, and flash flooding which killed one person.||After 2-3 inches of rain in less than two hours, a flash flood occurred along Anderson creek in Lauderdale County, sweeping three cars off of two roads affected. One person was killed, while at least two others were rescued.||A storm survey determined that an EF-0 tornado occurred southwest of Athens.

A tornado touched down approximately 0.3 miles west of the intersection of Zelner Road and Ripley Road in southern Limestone County. Upon touchdown the tornado produced tree damage. Tracking to the northeast, the tornado produced damage to a metal barn roof along Bell Road, snapped a tree at the base, and uplifted an attached roof of a porch on a small home. Farther to the northeast, the tornado produced mainly roof and window damage in a mobile home park along the west side of Blackburn Road. On Ham Road, more extensive damage was found to a mobile home, which was pushed back about six feet, detaching it from an awning and cement parking pad. This mobile home was anchored to concrete pads that were sitting on gravel, but the mobile home was left largely intact. The tornado continued to snap trees across Evans Road and Reid Road. As the tornado approached U.S. Highway 72, it produced significant damage to a metal-sided outbuilding, while producing mainly roof and siding damage to a couple of metal building systems on the south side of U.S. Highway 72. The tornado produced damage to a couple of metal signs at a gas station located along the north side of U.S. Highway 72 at the intersection of W. Washington Street. Along W. Washington Street, tree damage continued, with some trees uprooted, including a tree that fell on a vehicle. At the intersection of W. Glenn Valley Drive and W. Washington Road, a large tree branch fell, partly on a house. The tornado appeared to lift near this point, with some minor tree damage farther to the northeast in western portions of Athens.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:56 UTC and running to 03:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:37 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.

Decatur/Pryor Field (DCU), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:49 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 2019 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.