EF1 tornado, Ider to Trenton, 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

9:50 PM CDT (02:50 UTC)

Lifted

10:05 PM CDT (03:05 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

7.5 miles (12.1 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$700,000

Counties

Dade and DeKalb counties

Touchdown point

34.835, -85.612

Lift-off point

34.862, -85.485

Record number

2004122050-01

35 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FFC and NWS HUN and NWS MRX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Width point, 150 yards wide
• width here approximately 100-150 yards
• Start point, minor roof damage to a barn
• some minor roof damage and smaller tree branches down from oak trees.

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

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.

A powerful Spring storm system resulted in a Severe Weather / Tornado outbreak across much of the Southeast region, including north and central Georgia, beginning on Easter Sunday (April 12th) and lingering into the morning hours of April 13th. From the Storm Prediction Center (Day 1) convective outlook, just about the entire area was under an ENHANCED risk for severe weather with a MODERATE risk extending from the ArkLaMiss into western Georgia.||In addition, enhanced rainfall occurred over far north Georgia and in portions of central Georgia, with rainfall amounts ranging from 3 to 8 inches through the event. Significant flooding was in portions of the area with numerous reports of washouts and several reports of rescues.

The tornado touched down one-half mile to the west of Shiloh Community Church, damaging a barn. The tornado moved eastward along County Road 814 approaching the community of Shiloh. The greatest structural damage occurred at the church, with large sections of roof being damaged, and the walkway covering being removed from the church. At this point the tornado was at its widest. The tornado continued moving to the east toward the Alabama/Georgia state line. Along the path, relatively minor damage occurred to several mobile homes, peeling back metal from the roofs, and snapping both hardwood and softwood trees. The tornado further strengthened and became larger in size after it crossed into Dade County Georgia.

A National Weather Service survey found that an EF1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 100 mph and a maximum path width of 350 yards moved into Dade County from DeKalb County Alabama. The tornado crossed the Alabama-Georgia border at EF1 strength downing numerous trees as it moved east-northeast along Michaels Road and Brown Gap Cemetery Road. A home in this area received damage to the roof and to the columns on the front porch. The tornado continued northeast crossing Back Valley Road blowing down several trees on the Trenton Golf Club property. Along Highway 11, additional trees were blown down onto homes before the tornado moved into the city of Trenton. In Trenton, notable damage occurred along Glenview Drive where an RV was overturned and destroyed. Additional damage to trees was seen along Canyon Park Drive before the tornado lifted. In all, around 100 homes were damaged with a few destroyed. [04/12/20: Tornado #3, County #1/1, EF-1, Dade, 2020:009].

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:34 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:20 UTC and running to 04:38 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 00:58 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 Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:47 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.