EF2 tornado in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

A tornado, with maximum winds speeds estimated to be 115 mph, touched down about one quarter of a mile west of Watermelon Road, where it snapped and uprooted a few small pine trees. From there, the tornado traveled northeast and hit a hunting camp, where approximately twenty small pine trees were snapped and eight campers were rolled. Three of the campers were destroyed and the other five received differing degrees of damage. The tornado continued northeast crossing Watermelon Road, where it snapped three wooden H-frame transmission lines before lifting just to the east of Watermelon Road. Merchantable timber losses estimated by the Alabama Forestry Commission for this track are approximately $4K.

An upper level low pressure system developed over the Great Plains and moved east across the Ohio River Valley, dragging a cold front through the lower Mississippi River Valley. As the cold front moved through Arkansas, a squall line formed, producing severe thunderstorms to areas west of Alabama. As the cold front progressed eastward, individual supercells developed in advance of the front and moved through Alabama during the early morning hours on January 23rd. Several long track supercells produced strong, long track tornadoes.