EF2 Tornado — Morgan, Alabama

2023-03-24 · near Danville Arpt, Morgan, Alabama

Event narrative

A tornado tracked out of far east central Lawrence County into Morgan County. Minor damage was noted around Danville High School with the football scoreboard partially destroyed. The tornado intensified as it tracked east-northeast toward Targum Road. Uprooted trees, minor damage to a home, and a destroyed carport were observed. Tracking east, the tornado uprooted and snapped a significant number of trees along Iron Man Road and Forest Chapel Road. While there was heavy structural damage to single-family homes, the bulk of the damage was due to trees falling on houses. The tornado remained on the ground uprooting trees and tracking toward Vaughn Bridge Road. Near the Vaughn Bridge and Vest Road intersection, the tornado lifted and snapped the anchoring system of a single-wide mobile home. This caused the unit to overturn and roll, destroying the home. One fatality was reported at this location. Given the degree of damage, and strapping of anchors to the I-beam, the damage indicator held consistent with expected wind speed values. As the tornado tracked east, numerous trees were uprooted causing structural damage along Highway 31 and further east on Sparkman Street and through Bethel Road. The tornado likely lifted before the Bethel Road and I-65 intersection.

Wider weather episode

A severe line of thunderstorms rolled through north Alabama during the late evening hours of the 24th into the early morning hours of the 25th, producing 7 tornadoes. An embedded supercell thunderstorm with a history of tornadoes in Mississippi moved east-northeast across northwest Alabama, yielding another two tornadoes in Lauderdale County in Florence and near Anderson. Associated with this line, multiple narrow swaths of intense damaging winds of 60 to 90 mph occurred across the Shoals metro area, including Sheffield, Tuscumbia, Muscle Shoals and Florence. The winds caused widespread power outages, damaged numerous structures, and toppled or snapped numerous trees, power poles and power lines. A few trees and power poles were dropped onto residences and vehicles, either destroying or heavily damaging them. Roof damages were reported at many locations as well. All told, an estimated #### million in damages occurred, the majority in northwest Alabama in Colbert and Lauderdale Counties. As the line continued east, additional tornadoes were spawned in Lawrence, Morgan, Jackson and DeKalb Counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.4100, -87.1100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1086263. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.