EF3 Tornado — Lee, Alabama

2014-04-29 · near Prince Xrd, Lee, Alabama

Event narrative

The tornado crossed into Lee County, approximately six-tenths of a mile west of County Line Road. It continued to the northeast and strengthened to its maximum intensity near AL-169, with winds of 140 mph. At this location, approximately 6 manufactured homes were lifted, rolled, and completely destroyed. Additionally, a split level home had its roof and the exterior walls of the top floor removed. Three wood frame homes were also lifted off their foundation and completely destroyed. Several more homes sustained roof damage. Hundreds of trees were snapped off or were uprooted, with several trees debarked. From here, the tornado traveled northeast, where it continuously uprooted trees along its path. As it crossed lee County Road 205, one home suffered extensive roof damage, while approximately 20 additional homes sustained mainly shingle damage. The tornado crossed Lee County Road 179, where a few additional homes suffered minor roof damage as well. As it continue to the northeast, it began to weaken considerably and crossed US-280. A few trees were uprooted at this location. The tornado lifted along Lee County Road 298, approximately four-tenths of a mile from Lee County Road 318.

Wider weather episode

A large scale severe weather event began Saturday, April 26 and ended Wednesday, April 30th, producing several waves of severe weather from the Central Plains eastward through the Deep South, and across a significant portion of the eastern United States. Strong and violent tornadoes, very large hail, flash flooding, and damaging straight line winds accompanied this dynamic storm system. The most tornadoes occurred across the Deep South as the system moved into Mississippi and Alabama on Monday, April 28th. Supercell thunderstorms developed during the afternoon over eastern Mississippi and northwest Alabama in the warm sector well ahead of a cold front. The activity slowly spread east and southeast overnight, with this wave of severe storms ending early Tuesday morning. Storms redeveloped late Tuesday afternoon and moved into Central Alabama. A large area of rainfall across the northern Gulf Coast limited the amount of instability across the area, and storms remained below severe limits. The last wave of severe weather occurred early Wednesday morning across the south as an isolated storm produced large hail, as the system finally pulled east of the area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.4704, -85.2302)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 523251. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.