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EF0 tornado in Autauga County, Alabama

Tornado March 3, 2019 · Autauga County, Alabama

EF0
Rating
0.6 mi
Path length
70 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 70 yards (0.04 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southwest Autauga County and determined that it was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 75 mph. A brief tornado touched down just to the west of County Road 33 northwest of Autaugaville. It traveled northeast paralleling County Road 33 for a short distance before lifting. Only tree damage was observed along the path with several trees uprooted and some large limbs broken.

The wider storm

On the morning of Sunday March 3rd, 2019, an upper-level disturbance moved eastward from the Southern Plains into the southern Gulf Coast States. As favorable upper-level support and deep-layer forcing approached the lower Mississippi River Valley, a surface low pressure developed and moved northeastward into Central Alabama by late morning. Ahead of this surface low, a warm front initially along the Florida Panhandle moved northward allowing for the transport of warm, moist unstable air into southern and southeastern Central Alabama. This frontal boundary eventually became more stationary and stalled out north of the I-85 corridor as the strengthening surface low moved eastward. During this time, a large area of elevated thunderstorms affected portions northern Central Alabama while supercell thunderstorms initiated across the favorable warm sector. As these supercells intensified during the afternoon, parameters became favorable for tornadic thunderstorms in an area along and south of the I-85 corridor.

Began near Mulberry (32.4710, -86.7470).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 813620. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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