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EF1 tornado in St. Clair County, Alabama

Tornado March 25, 2021 · St. Clair County, Alabama

EF1
Rating
50.1 mi
Whole path
300 yd
Path width
5
Injuries

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Bibb County → Shelby County → St. Clair County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 St. Clair County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum winds near 105 mph.

This tornado originated in Bibb County and crossed through Shelby County before entering St. Clair County near Wolf Creek Road. It dissipated shortly after crossing into St. Clair County with damage consisting of uprooted and snapped trees.

The wider storm

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.

Began near New London (33.5020, -86.4440).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 946868. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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