EF1 tornado, Bishop, Alabama, February 5, 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

February 5, 2020

Touchdown

5:18 PM CST (23:18 UTC)

Lifted

5:25 PM CST (23:25 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.1 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Colbert County

Touchdown point

34.662, -88.128

Lift-off point

34.665, -88.106

Record number

2002051718-01

15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 88 mph.

• Approximated located of trees down off Petertown Rd, based on EMA report

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

A strong influx of moisture, along with a potent upper level jet stream and incoming cold front brought multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms, some heavy from the early morning of the 5th through the early morning of the 6th. The first round yielded heavy rainfall in northwest Alabama through southern middle Tennessee during the early morning of the 5th. A second round occurred with a line of thunderstorms during the late morning and midday hours. Intense rainfall in a short period of time led to several instances of flash flooding of small creeks and streams. Several roads were closed or barricaded as a result.||Then, a strong to severe line of thunderstorms developed in Mississippi during the afternoon of the 6th and rolled east through all of north Alabama and southern middle Tennessee during the evening hours. A supercell embedded along the line produced an EF-1 tornado in western Colbert County. As the line progressed east, several reports of wind damage were received. These storms also produced intense rainfall on top of already saturated grounds, producing flash flooding, followed by areal flooding that last through the entire day and into the nighttime hours of the 6th. Once again, several roads became impassible and were closed or barricaded.||This was followed by another band of showers and thunderstorms that lifted northeast from west central and central Alabama through far northeast Alabama during the early morning hours of the 6th.

A tornado uprooted a couple trees near Petertown Road, which runs parallel to the MS/AL border and continued slightly northeastward toward Allsboro Road. As the tornado crossed Allsboro Road, it caused more widespread damage along Bishop Lane. Several trees were uprooted while a few softwoods were snapped. |Structural damage, in the form of small farm buildings/sheds, was observed further down Bishop Lane. These structures sustained roof damage while one building also had a collapse of its walls. The tornado continued eastward and uprooted two more trees before lifting about three quarters of a mile east of Allsboro Road.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS MEG issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:08 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:27 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:25 UTC and running to 00:09 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 20:00 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 Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:18 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

15 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.