EF1 Tornado — Clarke, Alabama

2025-03-15 · near Carlton, Clarke, Alabama

Event narrative

An EF0 tornado began near Choctaw bluff tracking northeast tracking along the Alabama River. Sentinel and Planet satellite imagery revealed a narrow discontinuous path of tree damage, likely in the form of tree top snaps and/or uproots. This path tracks into the one building that sustained damage east of Walker Springs Road where some of the metal roofing material was removed towards the northwest. The tornado becomes untraceable after this point from satellite imagery, and will serve as the end point.

Utilized imagery and derived products made available through the NASA Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and the NASA Disasters Program.

Update May 15th, 2025: After further review of high-resolution satellite imagery that became available, it was determined this tornado began earlier to the south of Carlton where it was at its strongest point wiping out a large portion of forest west of Oil Well Road. Concentrated, weaker damage was evident all the way back to Belgreen Road which will serve as the starting point for this tornado. The intensity has been bumped to EF1 to match other corroborated ground and satellite survey tornadoes within the region. The tornadoes width was also increased to 240 yards which occurred back where it reached its peak intensity.

Wider weather episode

Thunderstorms developed across the area during the evening hours Some of these storms became severe with several tornadoes developing across southwest Alabama.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.2915, -87.8610)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1244986. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.