EF1 Tornado — Wilcox, Alabama

2023-03-26 · near Shawnee, Wilcox, Alabama

Event narrative

The third and final tornado in this cyclic supercell developed to the south of the occluding second tornado. This tornado began southwest of Highway 10 East where it quickly grew in size and intensified as it curved to the north, reaching a max width of 300 yards. Based on numerous uproots and snaps visible on high resolution Worldview satellite imagery, the tornadoes intensity is estimated to have peaked here at around 110mph. The tornado narrowed as it moved over Pursley Creek and weakened to EF0 intensity as it crossed Highway 10 East, downing a couple of trees as it crossed. From here the tornado remained weak intermittently damaging trees visible on worldview satellite imagery up to its crossing of highway 28 East. It appears the tornado lifted at this point as satellite imagery revealed no damage past the highway. Ground survey crew were able to assess the damage point at Highway 28 East where a couple trees were snapped and damaged powerlines.

Wider weather episode

A stalled front over northern portions of the area combined with favorable wind shear and instability led to the development of severe thunderstorms. Two tornadoes developed along with several reports of large hail.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.9508, -87.2080)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1161248. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.