EF3 Tornado — Madison, Alabama

2012-03-02 · near Cluttsville, Madison, Alabama

Event narrative

A tornado crossed from Limestone into Madison County just north of Orville Smith Road where a single wide modular home lost much of its roof and tree were snapped around it. Major structural damage occurred at the intersection of Yarbrough Road and Old Railroad Bed Road. This was one of the worst hit areas around the Harvest community. Damage to homes, mostly collapsed roofs and some exterior wall damage continued east along Yarbrough Road across Bridges Drive and Bedford Lane, just before Wall Triana Blvd. Also in this area, power poles were snapped near the base. Damage continued across State Highway 53 just south of Jeff Road. The tornado snapped and uprooted trees along Quarter Mountain Road, Carters Gin Road, and Beaver Dam Road just before Pulaski Pike. More significant damage bean to be seen along Patterson Lane, between Mount Lebanon Road and Harwell Lane where wood power poles were snapped, numerous trees uprooted and several homes had roof loss. A large metal barn/shed lost it's roof and some of it's walls were collapsed inward. Damage continued along U.S. Highway 231 at Meridianville Middle School where a concrete power pole was snapped an minor roof damage occurred to nearby buildings.

The tornado then strengthened between Hubert Road and Walker Lane along Mitzi Drive. In this area, EF-2 to low end EF-3 damage was found as several single story homes were destroyed with a loss of all walls. Other homes received significant damage with complete loss of roof and failure of exterior walls. Estimated path width in this area was 200-250 yards. Just northeast of this location along Charley Patterson Road, EF-3 damage occurred as 3 brick veneer/cinder block houses were reduced to rubble. The tornado continued to produce significant damage along Butler Road just south of Walker Lane where additional concrete power pols were snapped and large oak trees were snapped and uprooted. The damage path continued north of New Market, near Hillsboro, with additional trees snapped and uprooted and some roof shingles were lost to some residences. Damage here suggests the tornado was beginning to weaken. Along Davis Road, just south of Moe Road, numerous trees were snapped or uprooted with severe shingle loss to a house about 200 yards away from the road. Beyond this, the tornado appeared to weaken and lift as it moved across the higher plateau region of extreme northeast Madison County.

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 → (34.8162, -86.7853)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 361097. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.