EF1 tornado, Tanner Williams to Cottage Hill, Alabama, April 19, 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 19, 2020

Touchdown

11:05 PM CDT (04:05 UTC)

Lifted

11:07 PM CDT (04:07 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.1 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Mobile County

Touchdown point

30.577, -88.397

Lift-off point

30.575, -88.376

Record number

2004192205-01

44 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LIX and NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Screened in porch detached and flew over house and street.
• Patchy tree damage on high resolution satellite imagery.
• Patchy tree damage on high resolution satellite imagery collocated with likely TDS.
• Patchy tree damage on high resolution satellite imagery. Likely TDS on KMOB radar imagery.

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

A powerful storm system swept across the southeast states through the day and into the evening on the 19th. Ahead of this system a warm front brought a very warm, moist and unstable air mass northward across the area. Numerous thunderstorms develop along and south of the warm front and became severe, producing wind damage tornadoes and large hail.

The tornado touched down just west of North Grand Bay Wilmer|Road and continued east-southeast to Eliza Jordan Road South,|then turned toward the southeast crossing over Airport Boulevard.|The most significant damage occurred after the tornado crossed|Airport Blvd. in the Wakefield and Dominion Subdivisions where|many homes suffered damage to roofs, siding, gutters, chimneys,|and porches. Numerous fences were brought down as well. The|tornado continued southeast before finally lifting just south|of Cottage Hill Road. Numerous trees were either snapped or|uprooted along the entire path.

The tornado touched down just east of the Alabama/Mississippi state|line and tracked eastward before quickly lifting after it crossed|Tom Gaston Road. The tornado first toppled an irrigation watering|system, and then passed through two private residential properties|where it destroyed a barn, along with numerous broken branches and|a few snapped trees. The most significant damage occurred shortly|after to a private industrial property where three silos and a barn|were destroyed, three empty semi trailers were tipped over, and one|door of a large metal building was blown in and the other blown out.

The tornado touched down just south of Hitt Road in the Smithfield|Subdivision and tracked southeast, crossing over the intersection of|Cody and Grelot Roads. It continued to move toward the southeast|across Hillcrest Road and Cottage Hill Road, and then finally lifted|just before reaching Knollwood Drive. Mostly tree damage occurred|with this tornado with numerous branches broken, with the most damage|occurring from Hillcrest Road until the tornado lifted where several|trees were snapped or uprooted. Some houses suffered structural damage|that were impacted by falling limbs or trees, and many fences were|brought down as well. Sporadic wind damage occurred from Knollwood|Drive to Government Boulevard after the tornado lifted.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:03 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:39 UTC and running to 05:48 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:01 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 Mobile radar (KMOB), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:07 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

20 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.