EF1 tornado, Bakerhill to Sandy Pt, Alabama, January 11, 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

January 11, 2020

Touchdown

4:33 PM CST (22:33 UTC)

Lifted

4:41 PM CST (22:41 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.3 km)

Path width

275 yards (251 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Barbour County

Touchdown point

31.763, -85.310

Lift-off point

31.809, -85.228

Record number

2001111633-01

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

• extent of snapped/uprooted tree damage.
• trees snapped & uprooted along with some large branches broken. More in field, but EM couldn't get to b/c active hunting area.
• trees uprooted & large branches down.
• 1 uprooted tree & 1 snapped dead tree. (validated with property owner)

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

A dynamic storm system brought severe thunderstorms to a large part of Central Alabama on January 11th. Deep southerly flow brought rich Gulf moisture northward into Alabama. Anomalously high surface temperatures and moisture content was present in the developing warm sector ahead of the storm system. A line of strong to severe thunderstorms developed ahead of a cold front and moved into west central Alabama late in the morning. The line of storms quickly moved through Central Alabama and exited southeastern areas around sunset.||Although not every location experienced severe weather, widespread wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph were observed along the QLCS. Trees were snapped off or uprooted in numerous locations. Many homes, automobiles, and outbuildings were damaged or destroyed. Several locations likely received straight-line wind gusts of 75 to 80 mph.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southeast Barbour County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 88 mph.||The tornado touched down near Threatt Road (County Road 18) just southwest of the town of Bakerhill. One tree was uprooted, and a dead tree was snapped at the starting point. The tornado tracked northeast over County Road 79 where several trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado continued northeast where it crossed Highway 131. At this location vinyl siding was torn off the right side of a single family brick home. Near the home, there was debris including tin sheathing from a destroyed outbuilding, along with many snapped and uprooted trees. The tornado continued northeast and crossed Five Mile Road (County Road 36) where more trees were uprooted near and just north of Christian Grove Church. The tornado lifted east of Five Mile Road over an open field.

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 18:42 UTC and running to 23:06 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 0.05 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 Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 40 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:33 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

62 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 63 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.