EF2 Tornado — Limestone, Alabama

2012-03-02 · near Stewerds Store, Limestone, Alabama

Event narrative

A tornado developed near the Athens Country Club and Golf Course along Hatfield Lake Road off U.S. Highway 31. Several trees were snapped and uprooted along a path that crossed Interstate 65 and Strain Road. The tornado then tracked across Lindsay lane about one mile south of U.S. Highway 72. In the Canebrake neighborhood, numerous homes sustained significant roof loss with garage doors blown out and some exterior wall damage. Minor structural damage also occurred in the Indian Trace Community off Woodland Road. The tornado then crossed U.S. Highway 72 near Piney Creek and continued to track northeast. At Mooresville Road and Pepper Road, numerous homes sustained significant damage, including major roof loss. A brick garage was collapsed and numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. As the tornado continued tracking northeast across McCulley Mill Road, additional homes were damage, again sustaining major roof to homes occurred along Nick Davis Road near East Limestone Road. Damage continued to homes along Eagle Point Drive and Freedom Drive where a home lost its roof completely an other homes received major roof loss, broken windows ad collapsed garages. The tornado then crossed into Madison County. This tornado obtained EF-2 status producing peak wind speeds of 125 mph.

Wider weather episode

North Alabama experienced a portion of a much larger outbreak of tornadoes and severe weather from the Ohio Valley south through the Tennessee Valley to the Gulf Coast in advance of a strong cold front. The storms came in two waves. The first began during the mid-morning hours when two tornadic supercells developed across north central Alabama. The tornadoes (one EF-3 and one EF-2) tracked rapidly east-northeast across northeast Limestone and northern Madison Counties.

During the early afternoon, numerous thunderstorms re-erupted across north Alabama, including several supercells. Most of these storms were large hail producers, in one case up to softball sized. Three additional weak tornadoes were spawned in Limestone County. There were also reports of isolated wind damage. One last band of storms rolled through parts of north central and northeast Alabama during the mid evening hours as the cold front moved through.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.7597, -86.9531)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 361096. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.