EF3 tornado in Perry County, Alabama

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northwest Perry County and determined that it was consistent with an EF3 tornado, with maximum winds near 150 mph.

A strong, long-track tornado traveled across Hale, Perry, Bibb, Chilton, and Shelby Counties during the afternoon of March 25, 2021. It is estimated that the tornado had a 98 minute life span, with a path length of 80 miles. The tornado crossed from Hale into Perry County near County Road 51. A mobile home was destroyed with a site built home on the same property sustaining roof loss and some shifting of the crawl space foundation. Structural damage was most apparent in the vicinity of the confluence of County Road 23 and Old Salem Church Road. In this area, mobile homes were destroyed, with one site built home having roof loss and exterior wall failure, with another sustaining roof loss and some warping of the wood framing from wind entry. A nearby church had roof loss with an adjacent metal building sustaining a lot of damage consisting significant peeling of paneling and structure warping from wind entry. Other structural damage occurred along the path as well. The tornado crossed into Bibb County Road just south of County Road 44.

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.