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EF2 tornado in Chambers County, Alabama

Tornado March 2, 2012 · Chambers County, Alabama

EF2
Rating
34.0 mi
Whole path
1,000 yd
Path width
1
Death
4
Injuries

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Tallapoosa County → Chambers County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,000 yards (0.57 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado initially touched down west of Highway 62 in western Tallapoosa County. The tornado moved along a northeastern path in eastern Tallapoosa County and then moved into Chambers County. It maintained a half mile wide path as it crossed County 55 near Sandy Creek, with winds as strong as 120 mph. Thousands of hardwood and softwood trees were snapped across this path. It continued to the northeast, crossing Chattahospee Creek, and then passing just north of Trammel Crossroads, where a single-wide manufactured home was destroyed. The tornado began to weaken and narrow as it continued into central Chambers County, before it lifted along County Road 160, about 2 miles northwest of Highway 431.

The wider storm

On March 2, 2012, a strong cold front moved through Central Alabama. Severe thunderstorms developed along and ahead of this front. Some of these thunderstorms were supercells. These supercells produced damage across southern and eastern sections of the area. Damaging straight line winds, tornadoes, large hail and localized flooding occurred with this event.

Began near Fordyce (32.9598, -85.5929).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

3 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 374299. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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