EF2 Tornado — Macon, Alabama

2019-03-03 · near Carver Court, Macon, Alabama

Event narrative

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Macon County and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 115 mph.

The tornado touched down near the Mount Andrew community, along County Road 67. The damage was relatively weak and confined to tree damage as the tornado roughly paralleled County Road 67. The tornado crossed County Road 45 and then turned towards the northeast. It strengthened as it approached US Highway 29. The most concentrated and highest damage occurred in this location. Several stands of trees were completely uprooted, with none left standing. Many thousands of trees were uprooted in and near this spot. The tornado then crossed County Road 10, Red Road, and County Road 71. Many hundreds of trees were uprooted along this part of the damage path. As the tornado moved across County Road 24, Fitzpatrick Road and County Road 91, numerous trees were uprooted, several homes suffered varying degrees of roof damage, a few outbuildings were destroyed, and a farm irrigation system was damaged. The tornado moved across US Highway 80 and Highway 43 before crossing into Lee County.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.3455, -85.7356)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 813627. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.