Unrated tornado, Whiteside, Alabama, July 26, 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

July 26, 2020

Touchdown

6:53 PM CDT (23:53 UTC)

Lifted

7:05 PM CDT (00:05 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

0.2 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Limestone County

Touchdown point

34.622, -86.954

Lift-off point

34.621, -86.948

Record number

2007261753-01

An isolated thunderstorm developed over Decatur and also over the adjacent waters of Lake Wheeler (Tennessee River system) between 1740-1800 LST. A well photographed and reported waterspout developed around 1753 LST and lasted several minutes. The waterspout appeared as a narrow elephant trunk tube in numerous photos and videos sent into social media or directly to the National Weather Service in Huntsville. From the videos and photos received, the waterspout became a landspout tornado at times on the eastern shore of Lake Wheeler, just a few hundred yards south of the U.S. Highway 31 causeway. Due to reporting requirements, this will be logged as a tornado with an Unknown EF rating since no damage was reported. On the opposite side of Lake Wheeler, near the Bank Street district of Decatur, a small downburst knocked down portions of a large tree onto power lines. Photos of the storm from a distance also indicated a rain foot typically noted by storm spotters which correlated very near the location of the damage.

A well photographed and reported waterspout developed around 1800 LST and lasted several minutes. The waterspout appeared as a narrow elephant trunk tube in numerous photos and videos sent into social media or directly to the National Weather Service in Huntsville. From the videos and photos received, the waterspout became a landspout tornado at times on the eastern shore of Lake Wheeler, just a few hundred yards south of the U.S. Highway 31 causeway. Due to reporting requirements, this will be logged as a tornado with an Unknown EF rating since no damage was 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 19:35 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), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:53 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

2 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.