EF2 Tornado — Coosa, Alabama

2021-03-25 · near Lake Mitchell, Coosa, Alabama

Event narrative

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southwest Coosa County and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum winds near 115 mph.

Substantial tree damage, with many hardwood and softwood trees snapped, was noted along Little Airplane Road, CR 121, and Bluff Road. Several houses along Little Airplane Road had roof and structural damage with one right along the lakefront sustaining more substantial damage. A home along Bluff Road appeared to lose much of its roof, top floor, and walls. At this point, the tornado reached its maximum intensity. The tornado continued to travel northeast along the far southern extent of Lake Mitchell producing tree damage and some structural damage along the lakeshore. The tornado weakened notably as it moved east of Lake Mitchell with more minor tree damage noted along CR 29. The tornado snapped some limbs along CR 118 before dissipating just east of Herb Valley Drive.

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 → (32.8380, -86.4600)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 948238. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.