A short-lived tornado near Decatur did little damage early Monday morning beyond toppling trees into residences.
The National Weather Service forecast office in Huntsville said the EF-1 tornado had an estimated peak wind speed of 105 mph during the five minutes it was on the ground.
The storm hit Trinity in Morgan County, the tornado beginning at 2:28 a.m. and ending at 2:33 a.m. and covering a path of 2.4 miles with a maximum width of 75 yards.
There were no injuries, the weather service said.
The weather service said several soft and hardwood trees were snapped or uprooted by the tornado and some of those trees damaged well-built, single-family homes. All the damage to the homes, though, was caused by the falling trees. None of the damage was directly attributed to the tornado.
The most significant structural damage occurred at an RV/boat storage facility near that intersection, where the tornado lifted and displaced one storage shed, and damaged another, the weather service said.
It’s the first October tornado to hit the Huntsville weather service’s coverage area since 2014 when there were three tornadoes. Before that, the last October tornado was in 2010.
by Paul Gattis
October 23, 2017
