EF2 tornado, Gurnee Jct to Helena, Alabama, February 6, 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

February 6, 2020

Touchdown

1:57 AM CST (07:57 UTC)

Lifted

2:09 AM CST (08:09 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

9.9 miles (15.9 km)

Path width

700 yards (640 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Shelby County

Touchdown point

33.202, -86.975

Lift-off point

33.295, -86.850

Record number

2002060157-01

52 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 120 mph.

• Trees snapped, shingles blown off roof.
• Several trees snapped, fence and pergola blown over
• Gutters removed, trees snapped, fencing blown down.
• Numerous trees snapped or uprooted

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

Heavy rainfall and severe storms affected Central Alabama on February 5th and 6th as several impulses emanated from a deep upper trough centered over the central United States. This event yielded tornadoes, damaging winds, and flooding.||The northward progression of a warm front allowed a seasonably warm and moist air mass to overspread the region on Wednesday, February 5th, with afternoon temperatures in the 70s and dew points in the 60s. The initial round of convection on this day included areas of rain with embedded thunderstorms producing gusty winds as well as hail. There was a relative lull in thunderstorm activity during Wednesday evening, before the next upper-level impulse arrived, alongside a cold front and nearby surface low. This round of activity began its formation to the west in Mississippi and then moved through Alabama late Wednesday night through midday Thursday, February 6th. This round of convection produced widespread moderate to heavy rainfall, resulting in more substantial flooding. Some storms became tornadic due to the favorable wind shear and instability in place, while others produced damaging straight-line winds. Due to the overall wet and breezy conditions, trees fell in numerous locations from wind not associated with thunderstorms.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in western Shelby County and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum winds near 120 mph. The tornado touched down in a wooded area near Red Oak Rd and Hancock Creek and tracked northeast, moving across a largely uninhabited area along the Cahaba River. The tornado quickly intensified to EF2 strength where it snapped or uprooted thousands of soft and hardwood trees just south and east of Shelby County Road 1 in the Ward Creek area. The tornado crossed many bends along the Cahaba River as it approached the Moss Bend area where trees were snapped or uprooted. Further northeast, numerous trees were snapped or uprooted along a portion of Oak View Lane. The tornado continued northeast into the Old Cahaba neighborhood where several homes sustained minor roof and siding damage. The window to a home was also blown out along with additional damage to trees. The tornado continued northeast roughly paralleling Hillsboro Parkway where more trees were uprooted. The tornado dissipated just southeast of the Helena Amphitheater.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 05:48 UTC and running to 13:12 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:27 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.

Bessemer (EKY), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 16 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:00 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

14 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.