EF2 tornado in Madison County, Alabama

Initial continuous damage was found along the leading edge of Monte Sano Mountain close to the intersection of Monte Sano Blvd. and Nolan Avenue. Several trees were snapped and uprooted as it moved along the northern brow of the mountain. A clear, continuous path of snapped trees was observed just north of the RV campground area of Monte Sano State Park. From here, the tornado skipped down the northeast face of the mountain, caused minor tree damage near Wall Road, US Highway 72, and Morring Road.

More significant damage resumed near Ryland Pike near its intersection with Delta Pine Dr. Trees were snapped on Ryland Pike, then the tornado entered the Central Estates neighborhood. At least 15 houses had at least some roof decking removed in the neighborhood. A few houses had large sections of the roof structure removed, including one house on Moontown Road which had its entire roof and roof structure removed. Elsewhere around the neighborhood, many more houses had at least superficial damage to fascias and gutters, or had privacy fencing blown away.

The Flint Ridge horse farm suffered significant damage. Nearly all of the tin roofing was removed from one large and one small horse barn, and a riding arena was completely destroyed. Nearly all of the trees within 50-75 yards of the farm buildings were snapped. The tornado was clearly at its strongest between the house that lost all roofing, and the horse farm damage. At this location, the peak intensity is set at 125 MPH, an EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. The tornado continued over a nearby ridge and weakened slightly, snapping and uprooting more trees along Hurricane Creek Road, Sharps Cove Road, and Neal Drive. Additional damage to houses was noted along Sharps Cove and Neal Drive, where roofing was peeled off a manufactured home and nearby single family home.

A tornado outbreak occurred during the evening hours of the 29th into the early morning hours of the 30th. A very mild and unstable air mass was in place along with a strong southwesterly upper level jet. These ingredients combined with a cold front and pre-frontal trough sweeping from west to east across the area sparked scattered supercell thunderstorms during the evening, a few of which were tornadic. This was followed by a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) that occurred with the trough, which also was responsible for severe weather. Beneficial rainfall occurred with this system with 2-5 inches reported. Some of the rainfall fell fast enough to produce brief flash flooding in the Florence area during the evening.