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EF1 tornado in Wilcox County, Alabama

Tornado March 26, 2023 · Wilcox County, Alabama

EF1
Rating
4.3 mi
Whole path
300 yd
Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

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.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Shawnee (31.9508, -87.2080).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1161248. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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