EF2 Tornado — Barbour, Alabama

2019-03-03 · near Eufaula Weedon Arpt, Barbour, Alabama

Event narrative

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Barbour County and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 130 mph.

A tornado touched down about 4 miles north of the city of Eufaula, near the end of Hidden Acres Road. At this initial point, several trees were knocked down and a few outbuildings were damaged. The tornado tracked east and crossed County Road 97, snapping or uprooting numerous trees. A few mobile homes suffered damaged, and a few homes suffered some roof damage. The tornado then entered the Weedon Field Airport complex. This is where the most extensive damage occurred. Numerous trees around the complex were snapped and uprooted. One home suffered damage, several metal structure buildings were completely destroyed, and several airplanes were damaged or destroyed, and the Eufaula ASOS was destroyed. The tornado continued eastward and weakened slightly after crossing US Highway 431. The tornado damaged a few buildings and uprooted trees along Roseland Drive. The tornado then crossed the Chattahoochee River and into Georgia.

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 → (31.9483, -85.1537)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 814846. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.