EF2 Tornado — Chilton, Alabama

2021-03-25 · near Falakto, Chilton, Alabama

Event narrative

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southeast Chilton County and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum winds near 120 mph.

The tornado first touched down along CR 495, just east of Clanton, with minor tree damage. The tornado traveled east northeast producing mainly minor tree damage and some structural damage as it crossed CR 97. The tornado then tracked across mainly inaccessible forest land before producing notable tree damage along CR 480 before tracking over several homes along Lake Mitchell, south of County Road 472. Most of the homes had minor roof damage or sustained more damage from fallen trees. One home off of County Road 481 had a garage completely collapse. There were also numerous hardwood trees snapped near the pumphouse on County Road 474. Near this point, the tornado reached its maximum intensity. The tornado then crossed Lake Mitchell into Coosa County.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.8086, -86.5578)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 948237. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.