EF2 Tornado — Conecuh, Alabama

2024-05-10 · near Nixonville, Conecuh, Alabama

Event narrative

A unique, long track multi-vortex EF2 tornado occurred from just south-southwest of Midway, Alabama, tracking east-southeast through Georgiana, Alabama on the morning of May 10th, 2024. This tornado began south of Midway west of County Road 5 where it quickly intensified to EF2 strength after crossing this road. The tornado wiped out an entire section of forest with numerous low tree snaps and uproots at this location. As the tornado continued east-southeast, it weakened briefly until reaching County Road 79. Here the tornado became a large multi-vortex with at least 4 to 5 distinct sub-vortices that spanned from just north of County Road 106 to just north of County Road 79 in Commerce, indicating the larger parent tornado vortex was upwards of 0.7 miles wide (1,200 yards). Several of the sub-vortices were around EF1 to EF2 intensity, and where several of these vortices merged into the center of the tornado path north of Commerce, nearly the entire forest sustained tree snaps or uproots. As the tornado continued southeast, it crossed County Road 33 where a potential satellite tornado or sub-vortex rotated in from the southwest. EF2 tree damage including numerous tree snaps or uproots were noted east of this location after the sub-vortex merged into the main tornado track. Periodic high-end EF1 to low end EF2 tree damage persisted through State Highway 106 and Hank Williams Road. Here the tornado broke down into at least 5 sub-vortices that once again were confined within a .7 mile diameter. Each sub-vortex was around mid to high end EF1 intensity with its own focused convergent damage path. Along the centerline of the tornado track, low end EF2 damage to trees occurred in the area. The tornado continued southeast towards I-65, flipping a manufactured home a couple times along State Highway 106 across from the gas station. The tornado became much narrower and weaker as it continued into Georgiana, periodically uprooting or snapping trees along its path. The final observable damage location was near and just east of Taft Skipper Road where a couple outbuildings were destroyed, and a small swath of trees were uprooted in a convergent pattern. This survey was able to be completed with the assistance of NASA SPoRT, NASAMSFC, NASA CSDA and the NASA Disasters Program providing high resolution Planet satellite imagery and with Digital Globe Maxar for high resolution Worldview satellite imagery. Without the availability of this remote sensing imagery, the true path length, width, track, and intensity of this tornado would not have been able to be determined.

Wider weather episode

Two storm complexes moved across southeastern Mississippi, southwestern Alabama, and into the Florida Panhandle during the early morning hours of 5/10 producing destructive straight-line winds and multiple tornadoes.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.7100, -87.0560)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1185410. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.