EF0 tornado, Section to Browntown, Alabama, May 20, 2025

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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. 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

EF0

Date

May 20, 2025

Touchdown

8:47 PM CDT (01:47 UTC)

Lifted

8:52 PM CDT (01:52 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

6.1 miles (9.8 km)

Path width

105 yards (96 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

34.579, -85.982

Lift-off point

34.584, -85.876

Record number

2505201947-01

17 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 94 mph.

• Tree not in good condition
• Swirls in the wheatfield that may be low in scouring? Followed by a snapped tree branch in the tree line as you go up the elevation by the powerline.

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.

The tornado initiated its path near the Highway 71 and Highway 35 intersection, close to the Section baseball fields. Throughout its duration, the primary damage indicators included downed small and large tree branches. The tornado continued on an eastward trajectory, passing near CR 395 and subsequently crossing CR 372 before dissipating just west of the CR 123 and CR 47 intersection.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS HUN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:41 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. 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.