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EF2 tornado in Hale County, Alabama

Tornado January 12, 2023 · Hale County, Alabama

EF2
Rating
21.9 mi
Whole path
500 yd
Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Hale County → Perry County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southern Hale County and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum winds near 115 mph. The tornado touched down in a remote area of Hale County, near Clements Bend on the Black Warrior River. The tornado tracked northeast and across County Road 35, where numerous trees were uprooted on a farm near the State Cattle Ranch. From there, it continued to snap and uproot numerous trees in a largely rural area, before causing considerable damage to the roof of a house along Highway 69. The tornado intensified to EF2 strength as it approached the southern part of the city of Greensboro. Along Highway 25, it snapped and uprooted numerous trees, rolled and destroyed a single-wide manufactured home, and caused lighter damage to several other structures. The remaining damage along the path was mostly to timber, including Highway 61 just southeast of Greensboro, and County Road 14 just east of the city. The tornado weakened as it crossed into Perry County near Griffin Cemetery Road.

The wider storm

Numerous strong to severe thunderstorms impacted Central Alabama during the morning and afternoon hours of Thursday, January 12th, 2023. Several supercell thunderstorms spawned multiple tornadoes which caused significant damage in many areas. The severe thunderstorms also produced damaging straight-line winds and hail up to golf ball size.

Began near Arcola (32.6221, -87.7543).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

7 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1076616. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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