EF3 tornado in Bibb County, Alabama

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southern Bibb 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 into Bibb County from Perry County just south of County Road 44. There were three primary areas of concentrated structural damage in Bibb County. Along Belcher Road, anchoring to a metal building used for farm equipment failed, sending the structure crashing into an adjacent house. Across the field, a site built home had sections of roof removed and its open face garage blown away, with an adjacent farm building collapsed. In Centreville city limits, snapped trees were prevalent near the Cahaba River. Along Montgomery Road east of town, heavy damage occurred where trees were debarked. Mobile homes were crushed by fallen trees and site built homes had roof damage. In the town of Ashby, along Buzzard Road, several mobile homes were destroyed. Anchoring was not apparent, though at least one of the mobile homes was thrown a fair distance. Site built homes on the same street suffered light to heavy roof damage but were still standing. The tornado crossed into northwest Chilton County just south of County Road 108. There were five minor injuries in 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.