EF3 Tornado — Limestone, Alabama

2024-05-08 · near Ripley, Limestone, Alabama

Event narrative

The tornado descended Melton Bluff in Lawrence County and crossed the Tennessee River into Limestone County, moving ashore at the Brigadoon neighborhood. Public photos and videos confirm the tornado was over water before it moved on land. It caused damage at Inverness Place and this is where significant damage occurred to several homes. The home that had the greatest damage had all exterior walls facing the river collapsed, the roof of the main part of the house completely gone and the two story four car garage was collapsed with the roof also gone. The front of the house and interior rooms remained intact. Homes nearby had substantial roof damage, damaged vehicles, and other various exterior damage. Numerous large trees throughout the neighborhood were uprooted or snapped. Moving further into the subdivision, there was roof and exterior home damage to a lesser extent, fences knocked over by other debris and broken windows. The tornado lifted in a field outside of the subdivision.

Wider weather episode

A significant outbreak of tornadoes occurred in two waves during the evening of the 8th and early morning hours of the 9th. The first wave occurred as multiple supercell thunderstorms developed across southern middle Tennessee and far north central Alabama. These storms moved east during the evening hours, producing ## tornadoes in north central and northeast Alabama.

A break in the activity was then followed by a line of thunderstorms that dropped southeast through southern middle Tennessee into north central and northeast Alabama after Midnight through the early morning hours. The line produced tornadoes in southern middle Tennessee, a couple of which continued into northeast Alabama. Additional tornadoes occurred with the line in far northeast Alabama.

In addition, locally heavy rainfall from the slow-moving supercells produced flash flooding during the evening of the 8th, with several roadways covered with or barricaded due to hazardous driving conditions. This primarily affected locations in southeastern Madison County, northern Marshall County, and southwest Jackson County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.7480, -87.1830)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1179771. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.