EF1 tornado, Crossville to Loveless, Alabama, May 20, 2025

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

May 20, 2025

Touchdown

9:33 PM CDT (02:33 UTC)

Lifted

9:42 PM CDT (02:42 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

6.0 miles (9.7 km)

Path width

700 yards (640 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

DeKalb County

Touchdown point

34.285, -85.991

Lift-off point

34.283, -85.892

Record number

2505202033-01

29 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 104 mph.

• Go south to first bridge on map; 3 trees uprooted in same direction.
• Trees uprooted within 100 yards of this location on either side of highway 68.
• twisted panels; 50 yards from building.
• Partial loss of roof; shed damage; damage to large, healthy trees; **large tree uprooted & tin roof damage 2 miles south of this point on Hwy 227

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

An outbreak of tornadoes, large hail, wind damage and flash flooding occurred during the afternoon and evening of the 20th. Fourteen tornadoes occurred in north Alabama, including 1 EF-0, 10 EF-1, 2 EF-2, and 1 EF-U (unknown) which was a waterspout on Wheeler Lake. One person was injured in Colbert County. There were also several reports of large hail, including baseball sized and larger in northern Lawrence and southeastern Lauderdale Counties. Damaging winds were also experienced as well with the severe thunderstorms. Lightning sparked a fire which resulted in severe structural and water damage and total loss to the Albertville Public Library which is scheduled to be demolished. There were two reports of flash flooding in Jackson County.

A tornado began just east of Graves Street in the Crossville area, where a large tree was uprooted and a large branch (8 to 12 inches in diameter) was broken off of a tree 20 yards away. Additionally, a small porch on a nearby residence was damaged and lost most of its roofing. The tornado continued east just south|and paralleling Highway 68, uprooting sporadic trees and breaking off large tree branches along its way. More substantial roof damage occurred at a building associated with the Sand Mountain Research Extension Center off of County Road (CR) 190. The tornado intensified at this location to EF-1 intensity, collapsing the entire roof of the structure. Maximum peak winds of 93 mph occurred at this location. Here, the tornado continued on a eastward path and uprooted one very large tree and snapped another one from its base. The tornado seemed to widen a bit more as it pushed east, but weakened again to EF-0 intensity as it crossed CR 37. At this location, the tornado picked up a covering structure for hay and tossed it across a field. On the south end of the field, a small portion of one side of a barn was torn apart. The tornado then moved a bit more to the east-northeast paralleling Highway 68 as its path width decreased significantly|to less than 300 yards. The tornado continued its path uprooting trees or snapping off large branches of trees before dissipating just east of CR 84.

A tornado tracked about 1/3 of a mile just east of County Road (CR) 83. At this location, one large tree was uprooted and a 3 to 5 inch branch was broken off of a tree 10 yards away. The tornado quickly moved northeast and strengthened to EF-1 intensity as it approached Highway 176. Near one residence, three healthy and large pine trees were partially uprooted and another was broken off in a different direction and fell onto a mobile home nearby. At this location, the snapped tree heavily damaged the roof of the residence and destroyed a carport. Just one house further northeast, a camper trailer (weighing approximately 5000 lb) was lifted off its foundation and dragged 15 yards, before being flipped on its side. Peak winds of 100 mph were reached at this location. Additional minor tree limbs were seen snapped in the distance.

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

41 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:52 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:36 UTC and running to 03:41 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 00:50 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.

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 2025 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

38 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.