EF1 tornado, Tidwell to Snead, Alabama, April 12, 2020

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

April 12, 2020

Touchdown

6:04 PM CDT (23:04 UTC)

Lifted

6:05 PM CDT (23:05 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.3 km)

Path width

115 yards (105 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Blount County

Touchdown point

34.026, -86.392

Lift-off point

34.032, -86.380

Record number

2004121704-01

86 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• House not sufficiently anchored
• Trees snapped and uprooted also
• Widespread trees uprooted, garage destroyed
• Significant tree damage, evident convergent pattern

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

An upper-level low over the southwest United States evolved into a negatively-tilted shortwave trough as it moved over the southeastern United States. A warm front steadily moved northward during the morning and afternoon hours on Sunday, April 12. This allowed an unstable air mass to move northward and overspread much of the region. At the same time, very strong wind shear developed over Alabama as the upper trough neared the state.||An initial wave of severe storms affected areas near and north of Interstate 20, involving tornadoes, damaging straight-line winds, and some hail. Through the evening, a second wave of thunderstorms affected the remaining areas of Central Alabama with tornadoes and damaging straight-line winds. Flooding also resulted from training rainfall near and north of Interstate 20. Some roads became impassible or were washed out. This weather event was large in scope and produced severe weather from Oklahoma and Texas, through the southeastern United States, then up the east coast to New York.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Blount County, just west of Oneonta, and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum winds near 115 mph.||A tornado touched down near Moss Road and County Road 33. The tornado quickly intensified as it began to snap and uproot various trees near a farm, and also destroyed a farm shed. Numerous trees were uprooted as the tornado crossed Highway 33, before impacting two residences. It was here where the damage survey team found the most significant damage as one residence sustained moderate roof and siding damage, and another was completely swept off its foundation, moving nearly 60 feet to the north. Dozens of trees were also snapped and uprooted on these properties as the tornado tracked parallel to the highway in a northeast direction. The tornado crossed County Road 1 where another corridor of significant tree damage was observed. Just to the north, a shed was overturned and blown to the southeast. From here, the tornado continued northeast where structure damage was observed near Highway 33. Various farm buildings sustained significant damage and at least one residence sustained roof damage (winds estimated at 100 mph). Damage became more sporadic in nature and less severe northeast of this location, though another brief corridor of EF1 damage was observed near the intersection of Shady Lane and US Highway 231, where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. After crossing Highway 231, the tornado continued northeast and approached Palisades Park before dissipating along Ebell Road.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northeastern Blount County near Sand Valley and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum winds near 90 mph.||A tornado touched down near the 3600 Block of County Road 42 in northeastern Blount County. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted before the tornado impacted a farm property where structural damage occurred to at least three farm buildings, as well as a large silo. The tornado then tracked northeastward across an open pasture where additional trees were snapped and uprooted before dissipating in a nearby wooded area.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northeast Blount, near the Etowah County line, and determined that it was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum winds near 80 mph.||The tornado first touched down near the Walnut Grove community along the Blount-Etowah County line. Here sporadic tree damage was noted with some large limbs snapped and trees uprooted along Highway 278. The tornado tracked northeast and into Etowah County.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:31 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:20 UTC and running to 04:12 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:07 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 Birmingham radar (KBMX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:02 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 2020 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

72 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 73 of them

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.