EF1 Tornado — Limestone, Alabama

2024-12-28 · near Athens, Limestone, Alabama

Event narrative

The tornado began by snapping a few large softwood branches on Sanderfer Road just west of the intersection with Jefferson Street. From there, the tornado skipped north-northeast, snapping several

larger hardwood trees just south of an apartment complex on Southwind Drive. The tornado continued northward, snapping softwood branches and a few trees on Commercial Drive, south of Highway 72. The tornado produced its first building damage at the KFC restaurant at this location, blowing a portion of the roof off and strewing it across the highway and into the parking lot of the Taco Bell across the street. The tornado moved northward into downtown Athens. Several power poles were snapped along Madison Street and Jefferson Stret. Quite a few large soft and hardwood trees were snapped and uprooted in this area as well, beginning the EF1 damage portion of the path. Considerable roof damage and debris was then strewn throughout the square near the Courthouse in downtown Athens. Several buildings on every side of the square had portions of their roof removed, beginning with the roof completely torn off of the CEI Bookstore at the intersection of Green Street and Marion Street. From there, numerous other buildings downtown had at least some form of roof damage, with debris strewn to the north-northeast one to two blocks, between the intersections of Washington and Market Streets along Marion Street. Though the Limestone County Courthouse thankfully didn't sustain any damage other than their weathervane on the dome of the roof being bent, the very large oak tree beside the staircase wasn't as fortunate; the 100-year old tree was uprooted. From here, the tornado caused major damage just north-northeast at the Veterans Memorial Park, downing iron fencing and hurling a helicopter that was anchored to a metal pole about 50-60 feet to the west. The worst-looking building damage occurred at the intersection of Monroe and Pryor Streets, where an old warehouse was completely destroyed. It was determined that no anchor bolts were noted along the base of the cinderblock walls of the warehouse with the exception of some rebar that was found near where the overhead doors were located. Winds peaked at 100 mph with a peak path width of 160 yards at the destroyed warehouse location, with additional roof damage observed that followed the train tracks moving north-northeast. Several other businesses in this area had 20-50% (at least) of their roofs destroyed or blown off, strewing tin and debris downstream. Sporadic softwood trees were snapped or uprooted toward the end of the tornado path, along with snapping of large branches on Wilkinson Street just southwest of Airport Road.

Wider weather episode

A potent low pressure system lifted northeast through the lower Mississippi Valley and mid South during the evening and overnight of the 28th. A squall line along a trailing cold front roared northeast through north Alabama, producing strong to severe thunderstorms, which spawned one tornado in Limestone County in downtown Athens, and produced damaging winds in several locations. A couple of narrow swaths of wind damage were surveyed in Lawrence and Limestone Counties with estimated winds up to around 80 mph.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.7753, -86.9782)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1222723. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.