EF3 tornado in Hale County, Alabama

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in eastern northeast Hale County and determined that it was consistent with an EF3 tornado, with maximum winds near 140 mph.

The tornado initially began in a heavily wooded area northeast of Gabriel Creek Rd and tracked northeast. Radar imagery suggests the tornado quickly intensified. Farther downstream, significant timber damage was observed on County Rd 50, as well as National Forest Rd 706. This timber damage was quite impressive and very wide at many points with both hardwood and softwood trees snapped and uprooted. The magnitude of timber damage suggested winds of 140 mph. The tornado continued northeast causing further damage to a large swath of the Talladega National Forest in far northeast Hale County. The tornado crossed into southeast Tuscaloosa County very near the northwest tip of Bibb County.

A potent storm system affected Central Alabama on Thursday, March 25th. A highly-sheared environment combined with increasing instability produced numerous tornadic thunderstorms. Severe parameters were supportive of significant and long-track supercells, prompting the issuance of a rare High Risk Convective Outlook from the Storm Prediction Center for portions of Central Alabama.

A total of 10 tornado tracks were surveyed in Central Alabama. This included 4 EF3 tornadoes, 3 EF2 tornadoes, and 3 EF1 tornadoes. Damage was significant along the paths of the most intense tornadoes and, unfortunately, injuries and fatalities occurred.

Some storms were cyclic, meaning multiple tornadoes were produced by the same storm. The most impressive tornado of the event was the long-track tornado that traveled nearly 80 miles from Hale County to Shelby County. This ranked as the seventh longest single tornado track in the state of Alabama.