EF1 tornado in Houston County, Alabama

A tornado touched down near Sowell Road west of Willie Varnum Road, causing damage to trees and a farm building. The tornado continue northeast, crossing Willie Varnum Road, causing significant tree damage, supportive of an EF-1 rating with max winds estimated near 90 mph. The tornado also damaged the roofs of several homes along Willie Varnum Road before dissipating before reaching Cottonwood Road. Thanks to Houston County, Alabama Emergency Management for assistance with this survey.

A high impact severe weather event impacted the tri-state region on January 9th with supercells producing tornadoes, large hail, and damaging wind gusts, followed by a major squall line with widespread wind damage and additional tornadoes. Preceding this activity, very strong non-thunderstorm wind gusts of 40-60 mph occurred, with even a gust to 70 mph at the Albany airport. There were 14 tornadoes confirmed across the tri-state region, including 3 EF0s, 5 EF1s, 5 EF2s, and 1 EF3. This activity was driven by a deepening area of low pressure west of the region with a record strong low level jet crossing the region. The winds at 850 mb were in in the 65-80 knot range, and sufficient instability existed to support mixing some of these very strong environmental winds to the surface.