Unrated tornado, Hobbs Is, Alabama, August 23, 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

August 23, 2020

Touchdown

12:13 PM CDT (17:13 UTC)

Lifted

12:21 PM CDT (17:21 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Madison County

Touchdown point

34.550, -86.550

Lift-off point

34.551, -86.548

Record number

2008231113-01

A small shower developed during the midday hour near the Tennessee River at Ditto Landing on the Madison-Marshall County line. The shower produced a funnel cloud that descended at 1107 pm CST, and touched down as a tornado and/or waterspout from around 1113 pm CST and lifting around 1125 pm CST. The tornado was observed by a local research meteorologist at Ditto Landing who called in the report to the National Weather Service. The tornado from his viewpoint touched down at Hobbs Island, and possibly could have crossed onto the water as well. However, no damage was reported. Two other mesonet weather cameras also recorded the tornado from two different vantage points, one at the University of Alabama in Huntsville Severe Weather Institute - Radar and Lightning Laboratories (SWIRLL) and the Baron Critical Weather Institute camera in New Hope.

A local research meteorologist located at Ditto Landing witnessed a tornado and possibly a waterspout at times on and adjacent to Hobbs Island along the Tennessee River. Mesonet cameras including one from the University of Alabama in Hunstville at the Severe Weather Institute, Radar and Lightning Laboratories (SWIRLL) captured the event. No damages were reported.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:39 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), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:10 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

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.