A broken squall line of strong to severe thunderstorms tracked east through much of north into central Alabama during the early morning hours of the 26th.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS HUN wrote it up.
A broken squall line of strong to severe thunderstorms tracked east through much of north into central Alabama during the early morning hours of the 26th.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Huntsville, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 25, 9:36 PM CST, 4 hours 19 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HUNTSVILLE AL 936 PM CST MON FEB 25 2008 .UPDATE... SFC LOW OVER ERN MO WITH CDFNT EXTENDING THRU SW MO AND INTO WRN AR AT 9 PM. SVR TSRA BOX IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 AM FOR PORTIONS OF NRN LA/SRN AR/WRN MS. LINE OF STORMS WERE MOVING ACROSS ERN TX...SW AR AND NW LA. CLOSER TO HOME DEWPOINTS WERE STILL IN THE LOW/MID 40S WITH TEMPS IN THE MID 50S. RUC DATA SHOWS THAT MOST OF THE INSTABILITY WILL BE OVER CENTRAL/SRN AL DURING THE OVERNIGHT HOURS. THE MAX INSTABILITY FOR OUR CWA WILL BE JUST AHEAD OF THE CDFNT WHICH IS PROGGED TO ENTER NW AL ARND 12Z. 8H WINDS WILL REACH A MAX OF ARND 50 KT BY MIDNIGHT THEN WILL BEGIN TO DIMINISH AND SWITCH TO THE WEST TOWARDS SUNRISE. WET BULB ZERO IS ARND 9000 FT WHICH IS GOOD FOR HAIL. HOWEVER THINKING ATTM IS THAT THE SVR WX THREAT WILL STAY SOUTH OF CWA. AS A CDFNT APPROACHES THE CWA (TOWARDS SUNRISE) COULD HAVE A FEW TSRA WITH WIND GUSTS OF 40 TO 45 MPH AND HAIL UP TO THE SIZE OF DIMES. MODELS HAVE DEWPOINTS MAY BE REACHING NEAR 50 BY SUNRISE. AS FOR THE FCST WILL TWEAK MRNG LOWS IN THE NERN ZONES A LITTLE WARMER...SINCE CDFNT STILL WILL BE OVER NW AL AT 12Z. REST OF FCST LOOKS ON TRACK. UPDATED ZONES/GRIDS OUT BY 10 PM. && .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 325 PM CST MON FEB 25 2008/ SHORT TERM...THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT... PREDOMINANTLY SUNNY SKIES ACROSS THE AREA FOR MOST OF THE DAY HAVE GIVEN WAY TO A BAND OF THICKER HIGH CLOUDS...BUT THIS HAS NOT COME IN TIME TO SUPPRESS STRONG HEATING...AND AREA TEMPS RANGE FROM 55 AT FAYETTEVILLE TN TO 61 AT FT PAYNE. AFTN SFC ANALYSIS SHOWS LOW PRESSURE CENTERED OVER NRN MISSOURI...WITH A COLD FRONT DROPPING INTO ERN OK/NRN TX...AND A WARM FRONT DRAPED INTO NERN AR AND CENTRAL MS. SECONDARY FRONTS WERE NOTED NEAR THE COAST WHERE DEWPOINTS ARE RISING INTO THE MID/UPR 50S AND LOWER 60S. RAIN CONTINUES TO LOOK LIKE A NEAR-CERTAINTY ACROSS THE HUN CWFA LATE TONIGHT AS THE LOW MOVES ACROSS THE OHIO VALLEY AND DRAGS A COLD FRONT INTO THE AREA EARLY TMRW MORNING. MOISTURE IS A VALID CONCERN AT THIS STAGE CONSIDERING THE DEWPOINTS AND OBSERVED SOUNDINGS...BUT OPRNL MODELS AGREE ON IMPRESSIVE MOISTURE TRANSPORT AND MID-LVL THETA-E ADVECTION OCCURRING IN A RELATIVELY NARROW PREFRONTAL CHANNEL. THIS IS ALSO THE LOCATION WHERE THE AIR MASS IS LEAST STABLE. BOTH NAM AND GFS BUFR SOUNDINGS ARE CONSISTENT IN SHOWING A THIN AREA OF SFC-BASED INSTABILITY FOR A 3-6 HR TIME WINDOW...THOUGH THE GFS IS MOST AGGRESSIVE IN BRINGING IT NWD WITH VALUES APPROACHING 1 KJ/KG. HOWEVER IT IS WORTH NOTING THAT LOW-LVL WINDS AND WIND SHEAR ARE MAXIMIZED WELL AHEAD OF THE INSTABILITY... AND OVERALL FEELING IS THAT MODELS ARE TOO UNSTABLE THIS FAR NORTH. THUS THERE IS A GOOD PROBABILITY OF AT LEAST ELEVATED TSRA...BUT BELIEVE ANY SFC-BASED STORMS WILL REMAIN BELOW SVR CRITERIA. TEMPS WILL BE SLOW TO FALL TONIGHT BUT LOCATIONS IN EXTREME NW AL MAY SEE TEMPS DROP QUICKLY TOWARDS DAYBREAK AS THE FRONT MOVES IN. THE FRONT WILL BE SLOW TO MOVE THROUGH THE AREA...WITH AT LEAST THE PREFRONTAL TROUGH MOVING TO THE GA-AL BORDER BY 12Z...AND THE MAIN FRONT FOLLOWING A BIT BEHIND. THUS PLAN TO HANG ONTO THE HIGHEST POPS TMRW MORNING...BUT LT PCPN WILL LINGER INTO THE AFTN AS THE FIRST OF SEVERAL TROUGH AXES PIVOTS INTO THE AREA. THE LOW-LVL TEMP PROFILE LOOKS TOO WARM FOR ANY FROZEN PCPN TO FALL DURING THE DAY TMRW THOUGH TEMPS WILL BE STEADY OR SLOWLY FALLING...BUT ANYTHING THAT FALLS BY TMRW EVENING COULD FALL AS SNOW. MOISTURE WILL BE TOO LIMITED FOR ANYTHING BUT FLURRIES ACROSS MOST OF THE AREA...BUT SRN MID TN AND NORMALLY-FAVORED UPSLOPE AREAS COULD SEE SOME LT SNOW SHOWERS WITH THE TROUGH AXIS. DOUBT ANY ACCUMULATIONS WILL COME OUT OF THIS THOUGH ELEVATED TERRAIN COULD SEE A QUICK DUSTING. CONDITIONS SHOULD FINALLY IMPROVE FOR WED/WED NIGHT AS THE TROUGH DEPARTS AND SFC HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS EWD. HIGHS WILL STRUGGLE TO BREAK 40 F ON WED UNDER CONTINUED CAA...AND LOWS WED NIGHT WILL BE SIMILAR TO THOSE TUES NIGHT...GENERALLY WITH A HARD FREEZE EVERYWHERE. LONG TERM...THURSDAY THROUGH MONDAY... FEATURES OF INTEREST IN THE EXTENDED WILL BE A FAST-MOVING SHORTWAVE FRI-SAT AND A SLOWER/DEEPER SYSTEM MON-TUES. ECMWF IS FAVORED OVER THE GFS THOUGH LOCAL IMPACTS ARE NOT THAT FAR APART...WITH THE 1ST SYSTEM MOVING TOO FAST TO ALLOW FOR DESTABILIZATION. TIMING WITH THIS SYSTEM HAS BEEN INCONSISTENT SO AM NOT YET COMFORTABLE INCREASING POPS BY MUCH. THE 2ND SYSTEM AT THE VERY END OF THE PD IS LESS CLEAR-CUT...WITH UNCERTAINTY MAXIMIZED AT THE DAY 7 RANGE AS WELL AS DEPTH/SPEED INCONSISTENCIES. WILL GO WITH 30 POPS TO START. TEMPS THRU THE EXTENDED RANGE LOOK SEASONABLY WARM DESPITE THE FROPA SATURDAY. NO REAL COLD PLUNGES ARE INDICATED IN GLOBAL MODEL OUTPUT THROUGH DAY 7. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... HUNTSVILLE 46 46 26 42 / 90 50 10 10 SHOALS 46 47 26 44 / 90 30 10 10 CULLMAN 45 46 25 41 / 90 50 10 10 FAYETTEVILLE 45 45 24 40 / 90 50 20 10 ALBERTVILLE 48 49 25 42 / 90 60 10 10 FORT PAYNE 46 53 27 44 / 90 60 10 10 && .HUN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... AL...NONE. TN...NONE. && 07
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HUNTSVILLE AL 1032 PM CST MON FEB 25 2008 ALZ001>010-016-TNZ076-096-097-261100- LAUDERDALE-COLBERT-FRANKLIN AL-LAWRENCE-LIMESTONE-MADISON-MORGAN- MARSHALL-JACKSON-DE KALB-CULLMAN-MOORE-LINCOLN-FRANKLIN TN- 1032 PM CST MON FEB 25 2008 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTH ALABAMA AND PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN MIDDLE TENNESSEE. .DAY ONE...OVERNIGHT... A STRONG COLD FRONT WILL BRING SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS TO NORTHWEST ALABAMA AROUND MIDNIGHT AND THEN SPREAD ACROSS THE REST OF THE TENNESSEE VALLEY OVERNIGHT. IN STRONGER STORMS EXPECT WIND GUSTS BETWEEN 40 AND 50 MPH AND HAIL UP TO THE SIZE OF DIMES. THE BEST CHANCE OF STRONGER STORMS WILL BE OVER NORTHWEST ALABAMA. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY... THE PROBABILITY FOR WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW. MUCH COLDER AIR WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA IN THE WAKE OF A STRONG COLD FRONT PASSAGE. GIVEN RESIDUAL MOISTURE AND THE COLD AIR...A FEW FLURRIES OR LIGHT SNOW SHOWERS WILL BE POSSIBLE TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING. DUE TO WARM GROUND TEMPERATURES... NO SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OR TRAVEL CONCERNS ARE ANTICIPATED. .SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT... ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME. SS
The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 07:56 UTC.
1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A horse barn was heavily damaged by thunderstorm winds. The metal roof was torn off and a piece of lumber was driven into the ground. Eight horses which occupied the barn were not injured. Time estimated.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alabama in 2008Every state in 2008This day in weather historyWarnings in Alabama, February 2008
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 83921.