Thunderstorm Wind in Barbour County, Alabama

A wide zone of tree and some structural damage was surveyed on the north side of Clayton and determined to be consistent with straight-line winds associated with a rear inflow notch and associated bow echo noted on KEOX radar. There were several areas of concentrated tree fall, particularly at a home on Highway 239 where at least 20 large pine trees were uprooted surrounding the home. A majority of the trees fell towards the east-northeast with the motion of the storm. The home itself sustained no obvious damage, but one tree did fall on a car in the driveway. Further west down 239, a large portion of the metal roof on the Barbour County Farm Center was blown into the parking lot, and several trees were also uprooted at the Barbour County Jail and Ventress Correctional Facility property along 239. A second area of concentrated tree damage was found further northeast on County Road 49, Kennedy Road, and Jacksonville Church Road. This damage appears to be associated with rear flank downdraft winds associated with a weak couplet noted on KEOX and KMXX radars. The vast majority of tree fall was oriented to the northeast or east-northeast, and the overall damage zone width on these consecutive roads was roughly one-half to one mile wide.

A line of thunderstorms ahead of a cold front moved across Central Alabama from late on March 11 into the early morning hours of March 12. After initially only producing a few areas of wind damage, the line quickly intensified east of I-65. Around 1 AM CDT, several trees were downed across Coosa and Tallapoosa counties. Scattered tree damage was also reported in Montgomery before activity quikcly ramped up after 2:30 AM CDT. Multiple areas of rotation within the line produced three EF-0 tornadoes across Pike, Barbour, and Russell counties, along with numerous instances of tree and structural damage from straight-line wind in these three counties along with Bullock and Lee. The line exited into Georgia by 4:30 AM CDT.