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EF3 tornado in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

Tornado January 10, 2008 · Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

EF3
Rating
5.6 mi
Path length
350 yd
Path width
$435K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 350 yards (0.20 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

The tornado touched down around just southwest of the intersection of AL-69 and CR-38, near Windham Springs. From there, it traveled northeast across the intersection, and then roughly parallel to CR-38 for about 5 miles, before lifting northeast of the Wiley Community. At least 5 structures were heavily damaged, including a church in Windham Springs and a general store in Wiley. At least 300 trees were either snapped or uprooted along the damage path.

The wider storm

A strong low pressure system and associated cold front caused numerous severe thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes across central Alabama.

Began near Sterling (33.4820, -87.5095).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Lowndes CountyEF1 Pickens CountyEF1 Barbour CountyEF0 Marengo CountyEF0 Pickens County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 76564. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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