EF1 tornado in Jackson County, Alabama

A tornado of up to EF-1 intensity produced peak wind speeds of 90 mph. The tornado snapped and uprooted trees just west of Highway 65 near Francisco. The tornado tracked into far southwestern Franklin County in Tennessee for about another quarter of a mile before lifting. This tornado was spawned from the supercell thunderstorm which had produced an EF-3 tornado in east central Limestone into northern Madison Counties earlier in the morning. It is unknown if additional damage occurred with this tornado in the higher terrain of northeast Madison and northwest Jackson Counties as these areas were inaccessible by ground vehicle.

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.