Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2010
EF1 tornado, Turner to Scotrock, Alabama, March 25, 2010
From Turner to Scotrock, this EF1 tornado ran 2.7 miles across Shelby County on March 25, 2010, touching down at 7:02 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $170,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 mph
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.
The record
- Rating
- EF1
- Date
- March 25, 2010
- Touchdown
- 7:02 PM CDT (00:02 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:07 PM CDT (00:07 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 2.7 miles (4.4 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $170,000
- County
- Shelby County
- Touchdown point
- 33.239, -86.867
- Lift-off point
- 33.254, -86.823
- Record number
- 1003251802-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A strong storm system and advancing cold front caused showers and thunderstorms to develop across Central Alabama late in the afternoon on the 25th. A couple of these storms became severe, and produced tornadoes.
The tornado first touched down on Fox Valley Road in the Maylene community, where it tossed trampolines and snapped at few small trees. It then traveled northeast, crossing CR-17 just south of the intersection of 1st Ave W. It then struck Fox Valley Apartments and moved into the Stoney Meadow Subdivision, where several homes received minor to substantial roof damage. The most significant damage occurred on Rock View Trail, where siding was stripped off of one home and another home received significant roof damage and had the garage door blown out. Two mature cedar trees were also snapped at this location. The tornado weakened rapidly and continued to produce minor damage as it crossed through the Navajo Trail Subdivision. The last bits of minor roof and fence damage were in the Greenfield Subdivision off of Industrial Park Drive in Alabaster. In total, at least 20 structures were damaged, and dozens of trees were snapped or uprooted.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
1 minute of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:01 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:19 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:20 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | BMX |
| 00:01 UTC | 00:19 UTC | Tornado Warning | BMX |
Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.
The forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:46 UTC.
SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.
The air that afternoon
The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.
Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 00:00Z
0.0 hours before the tornado, 10 km from the path. March 26, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 245 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -7 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 181 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 761 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 88 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 292 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 249 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 1.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.9 K/km
Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 12:00Z
12.0 hours after it, 10 km from the path. March 26, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -83301 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 35 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 711 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 54 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -66 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -6 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
The surface observations
Alabaster (EET), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:10 UTC | 64.4 | 55.4 | 170° 12 kt | 20 | 1005.4 | |
| 22:53 UTC | 63 | 56 | 170° 12 kt | 21 | 1004.7 | |
| 23:53 UTC | 63 | 55 | 0° 0 kt | 1005.1 | TS | |
| 00:07 UTC | 62.6 | 55.4 | 170° 7 kt | 1005.1 | ||
| 00:53 UTC | 63 | 55 | 3 kt | 1006.4 | ||
| 01:53 UTC | 63 | 48 | 280° 12 kt | 20 | 1007.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 11 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:02 UTC.
Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track
Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:02 UTC | TORNADO 1 | N Alabaster | Shelby, AL | EF-1 TORNADO. PATH LENGTH 2.75 MILES. WIDTH 100 YARDS. INITIAL TOUCHDOWN ON FOX VALLEY ROAD. LAST DAMAGE IN GREENFIELD SUBDIVISION OF ALABASTER. SEVERAL HOMES WITH MINOR TO SUBSTANTIAL ROOF DAMAGE. NUMEROUS TREES SNAPPED |
| 00:05 UTC | TORNADO | N Alabaster | Shelby, AL | TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN AND ROOF DAMAGED ON HOUSE IN STONEY MEADOWS SUBDIVISION NEAR CR 44 AND CR 17...IN THE FOX VALLEY AREA. |
| 00:59 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Wnw Clanton | Chilton, AL | EF-1 TORNADO. PATH LENGTH 2.76 MILES. PATH WIDTH 200 YARDS. 5 STRUCTURES DAMAGED. 1 STRUCTURE DESTROYED. 10 TO 20 TREES SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. |
| 01:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Nw Clanton | Chilton, AL | WORKSHED IN FIELD OFF LITTLE JOHN ROAD DAMAGED WITH TIN AND INSOLATION SPREAD ACROSS THE FIELD. POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 01:05 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 1 Nw Clanton | Chilton, AL | WORKSHED IN FIELD OFF LITTLE JOHN ROAD DAMAGED WITH TIN AND INSOLATION SPREAD ACROSS THE FIELD. EF-1 TORNADO |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of March 25, 2010
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
What this means
Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.