EF0 Tornado — Montgomery, Alabama

2026-01-25 · near Mc Gehees, Montgomery, Alabama

Event narrative

NWS meteorologists assessed storm damage along the Lowndes County and Montgomery County line, in the community of Rolling Acres, and determined it was the result of a tornado. The tornado began on the west side of Cruise Road, just north of Bibb Road, where a few snapped and uprooted trees were observed. The tornado then continued eastward to County Road 26 and Hargrove Lane, producing similar timber damage along the way. The tornado then struck a manufactured home (MH) as well as two site-built homes along Treat Road. The first site-built home sustained damage to an attached carport and associated roofing on the south side of the structure. The MH had its sheet metal roof completely removed, though the roof truss structure remained intact. Insulation from its roof was noted to have been blown southeastward while the metal roofing material was blown northward. Next door, the tornado removed from a site-built home a large section of its roof structure on the west side of the structure. A splattering of insulation was noted on the east side of the residence. This damage pattern suggest a cyclonic wind field (i.e., a tornado). Several trees were uprooted or snapped in the vicinity of the structures. The tornado then produced additional timber damage, fairly minor in nature, east to near the shoulder of Interstate 65. 99% of this tornado's path was characterized by EF-0 damage, though a maximum rating of EF-1 is assigned due to the level of damage to the site-built home, making the worst of damage very, very short-lived.

Wider weather episode

As a major winter storm unfolded across parts of Mississippi, Tennessee, and North Alabama, Central Alabama saw a quick warmup prior to a steep temperature fall as a surface low moved across the Birmingham area. On January 24, freezing rain was observed with light ice accretion across Marion and Winston counties. As the low moved through the state by the morning of January 25, a sharp warm sector developed generally south and east of the I-59 corridor. A line of thunderstorms developed during the mid-morning hours and moved eastward across Central Alabama. These storms briefly turned severe in the Montgomery area, producing an EF-1 tornado along the Lowndes/Montgomery county line as well as considerable straight-line wind damage in a swath along the I-85 corridor within the city of Montgomery.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.2215, -86.4086)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1304056. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.