EF2 Tornado — Crenshaw, Alabama

2022-04-05 · near Petrey, Crenshaw, Alabama

Event narrative

A brief yet strong EF2 tornado occurred on 4/5/22 in Crenshaw

County by Petrey, AL at 10:56 AM CDT. The tornado began just

before Lapine Highway where it uprooted and snapped several

softwood trees. The tornado crossed the Highway, gradually

widening and causing some damage to the roof of a church while

continuing to snap and uproot softwood trees. The tornado quickly

impacted a chicken farm off of Shady Grove Road where one chicken

house was completely destroyed supporting the initial EF2 damage

location. As the tornado continued northeast, the radius of EF2

winds widened considerably. Winds peaked around 125 mph in the

adjacent forest resulting in complete devastation of approximately

20 to 30 acres of trees where numerous snapped softwoods and

snapped or uprooted hardwoods were observed. As the tornado

approached Smith Chapel Road, it began to quickly shrink in size

and weaken uprooting or snapping a handful of trees with no

notable damage after it crossed the road.

Wider weather episode

A very active Spring severe weather season continued in April. A very strong storm system and associated cold front swept across the area during the morning of April 5th. A very unstable atmosphere combined with strong wind shear led to a severe weather outbreak across portions of the deep south. Eight tornado tracks were found along with other areas of wind damage and large hail.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.8712, -86.2108)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1019011. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.