EF1 Tornado — Montgomery, Alabama

2024-12-29 · near Mc Gehees, Montgomery, Alabama

Event narrative

A tornado began along Bill Joseph Pkwy and moved eastward across Folmar Pkwy and I-65. A few warehouses at the intersection of Bill Joseph and Folmar sustained roof and siding damage, with several trees down as well. At the end of County Court adjacent to I-65, the tornado became much stronger, and two warehouses sustained major roof loss on a corner of each building along with cinder-block wall collapse in sections of both buildings. Several semi trailers were flipped or tossed as well. This damage was rated upper-end EF1. After scattering debris across the interstate, two businesses at the intersection of U.S. 31 and Fischer Road sustained roof and structural damage, with several more semi trailers behind the buildings being flipped or moved. Just south of this location, Hooper Academy had mostly minor damage to the building and surrounding grounds which was not directly related to the tornado. Continuing east-northeast, several trees were uprooted north of Lagos Lane as the tornado tracked northeastward toward Hyundai Blvd. A newly constructed greenhouse-type building south of the main Hyundai facility had much of the covering ripped off. A house and shed at Hyundai Blvd had roof loss, and across the road a small metal building at the southeast corner of the Hyundai campus had roofing removed and blown across a railroad into a tree line. The tornado appeared to dissipate at this point, just before reaching U.S. 331. Maximum estimated winds were 110 mph.

Wider weather episode

A quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) entered western Alabama from Mississippi just after 9 PM on December 28. With ample wind shear and adequate instability with the line as it passed through Central Alabama, 18 confirmed tornadoes were spawned within different line segments as the QLCS pushed eastward. Of the 18 tornadoes, 6 were rated EF1, including one that had a mile-wide path in Hale County near Sawyerville and two tornadoes that struck areas of central Montgomery County. An EF0 in Lowndes County resulted in two injuries. In addition, strong gusts associated with the QLCS resulted in scattered areas of non-tornadic wind damage.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.2615, -86.3715)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1222524. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.