EF1 Tornado — Macon, Alabama

2019-03-03 · near Society Hill, Macon, Alabama

Event narrative

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in far northeast Macon County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 88 mph.

The tornado touched down near Rogers Road just north of U.S. Highway 80. Numerous pine trees were uprooted as the tornado tracked northeast and crossed Callaway Baker Road, Highway 33 and Highway 43. The tornado began to strengthen as it moved east of Highway 43 and uprooted more pine trees before crossing into Lee County near Lee Road 812.

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 → (32.4472, -85.4818)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 813639. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.