Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2018
EF3 tornado, Reads Mill to Rabbittown, Alabama, March 19, 2018
From Reads Mill to Rabbittown, this EF3 tornado ran 35.2 miles across Calhoun, Cleburne and Haralson counties on March 19, 2018, touching down at 8:23 PM CDT and reaching 2,175 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 4, and did $300,000 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 mph
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 mphthis tornado
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
- EF3
- Date
- March 19, 2018
- Touchdown
- 8:23 PM CDT (01:23 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:14 PM CDT (02:14 UTC)
- On the ground
- 51 minutes
- Path length
- 35.2 miles (56.7 km)
- Path width
- 2,175 yards (1989 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 4
- Property damage
- $300,000
- Counties
- Calhoun, Cleburne and Haralson counties
- Touchdown point
- 33.845, -85.947
- Lift-off point
- 33.776, -85.344
- Record number
- 1803191923-02
The damage survey
346 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR and NWS BMX and NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 150 mph.
- trees pointed north and southeast. near center
- possible RFD damage, no splatter
- Pointing north. Trees on a home
- Numerous Hardwoods snapped
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
Six tornadoes and hail up to 3 inches in diameter affected the northern areas of Central Alabama on the afternoon and evening hours of March 19th, with a rare PDS (Particularly Dangerous Situation) Tornado Watch issued for a large portion of Central Alabama. An environment favorable for significant severe thunderstorms developed as a low-amplitude upper-level trough moved into the region with a deepening surface low passing across far north Alabama. These two features resulted in a deep column of strong wind shear with 0-6km Bulk Shear values of 60-70 knots. Additionally, moist southerly flow, warm surface temperatures, and colder temperatures aloft yielded a moderately unstable air mass. Initially, thunderstorms were producing large to very large hail. However, the tornado threat increased in the late afternoon and evening hours as wind speeds at low levels increased with the arrival of a low-level jet.
National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northern Calhoun Calhoun County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF3 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 150 mph. The tornado first touched down west of US Highway 431 north of town of Wellington, where it rapidly intensified and widened. It snapped and uprooted numerous trees along US Highway 431. Several homes were damaged by the falling trees. The tornado proceeded eastward across Websters Road and Broughton Road with scattered tree damage. As the tornado crossed Old Sulphur Springs Road, two homes were damaged with scores of trees snapped or uprooted. At Angel Station Road, the tornado filled the valley from one side to the other and caused extensive tree and home damage. An electrical transmission tower line was toppled at this point, but it was believed that flying debris compromised the structure. The tornado continued eastward and destroyed the sanctuary at West Point Baptist Church. Additional structures were severely damaged at the church. The tornado entered the City of Jacksonville where it gained strength into the EF3 category, with winds around 140 mph. It removed most of the roof and the top floor of two buildings in an apartment complex. The tornado affected the entire campus of Jacksonville State University. Several buildings sustained significant damage. The most intense winds remained north of the campus however, mowing down trees and causing direct damage to homes. As the tornado crossed Highway 21, it caused caused major damage to the Merrill Building. It then moved into a highly populated zone, where scores of homes suffered major damage and rendered uninhabitable. The tornado maintained its strength as it crossed Choccolocco Mountain, and winds funneled up the valley uprooting or snapping trees. It caused major damage to a number of homes on the mountainside. Damaged continued all the way up to just south of the peak of the mountain. As the tornado moved down the eastern side of Choccolocco Mountain, it narrowed substantially and became stronger once it reached the valley below. Stands of trees were wiped out with trunks snapped relatively close to ground level. Perhaps the most intense damage along the entire track occurred along Hollingsworth Road, where a site built home was completely destroyed with only a portion of one interior wall left standing. Debris from this home was blown downstream across a field with some evidence of wind rowing. Hay bales adjacent to the home, estimated at 800 pounds each, were thrown up to 300 yards to the east. Maximum winds at this location were estimated at 150 mph. The tornado continued east-southeast and downed thousands of trees in the Talladega National Forest and crossed into Cleburne County just south of County Road 534.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Birmingham, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Mar 19, 7:49 PM CDT, 34 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Mar 19, 7:49 PM CDT, 34 minutes before
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Birmingham AL 749 PM CDT Mon Mar 19 2018 .UPDATE... MESOSCALE UPDATE. && .DISCUSSION... ...SEVERE WEATHER THREAT CONTINUES... The environment remains favorable for severe thunderstorms with wind shear continuing to increase across our northern and central counties. Though storm development remains more isolated across our southern and central counties, any activity that develops and intensifies will have the opportunity to tap into favorable instability and dynamics that will support all convective hazards from very large hail to tornadoes to damaging winds. Currently, the most favorable area for severe storms in where the best low level convergence is from Double Springs to Oneonta to Helfin. These storms will slowly move south and east the nest few hours. An effective surface dryline extended from near Natural Bridge in Winston County southwest to near Vernon in Lamar County. The severe weather threat will end as the dryline progresses further southeast. We have launched special weather balloon soundings every 3 hours since 18Z this afternoon and the trend over time has been increasing wind shear across central Alabama while robust instability has been maintained due to the solar heating much of the area experienced for much of the afternoon along with generally southerly winds that have helped maintain dew points generally in the 60's across much of our forecast area. A limiting factor in convective development has been the remnant Elevated Mixed Layer (EML) that has persistently been present in the observed soundings aloft this afternoon. This dry layer has helped to promote the accumulation of convective available potential energy while only permitting the strongest of updrafts to break through the cap. This has resulted in the cap holding strong across much of our south-central counties since mid afternoon while earlier development across northeast Mississippi and northwest Alabama have maintained their development and further expanded in extent and intensity over the past few hours. 05/75 && .AVIATION... 00Z TAF Discussion. Trend with this set of TAFs will be in a bit more optimistic direction, as the higher coverage of convection thus far has remained well to the north of central Alabama terminals. Will maintain a VCTS for a couple of hours at most locations, although it did push this back an hour or two from the previous forecast (based on radar trends). Still quite a bit of uncertainty on how far south the convection will get overnight. If radar trends over the next couple hours show the storms eventually expanding in area, then we can update the TAFs where necessary. Winds will shift around to a more westerly direction overnight, and start to increase and be more gusty after sunrise on Tuesday. The models were giving me mixed signals on the development of lower clouds after the rain/storm threat ends overnight. Given the lack of clouds back to the west, I am inclined to believe the more optimistic of the model solutions. But once the winds kick up Tuesday, the cumulus field should start to fill in as well. /61/ && .FIRE WEATHER... After some storms tonight, light showers are possible Tuesday, before dry conditions arrive by Wednesday. RH values will be elevated the next couple days. There are no fire weather concerns. && .PREV DISCUSSION... /Issued 649 PM CDT Mon Mar 19 2018/ Confidence has increased in the potential for explosive supercell thunderstorm development late this afternoon into tonight especially along and north of a line from Tuscaloosa to Calera to Wedowee. A dangerous environment will also be in place south of this line, but initiation of storms and storm coverage is questionable. Currently, surface winds have veered to the southwest across most of the area following the passage of a warm front. Normally this would yield lower dewpoints and overall moisture quality, but this does not appear to be the case. Dewpoints are holding in the mid to upper 60s upstream across MS. Moisture quality should not be an issue as this event progresses. This event will hinge on evolution of the surface to 850mb wind fields in response to the approaching upper-level trough. We are already seeing this response across the northern half of MS where winds are south to southeast near Tupelo and Columbus. Hi-res models appear to be getting a better handle on the mesoscale features and are slowly trending more aggressive with surface pressure troughing and backing of winds in the 23-03z time frame. HRRR guidance suggests the potential for 0-1km shear to exceed 40kts. This amount of shear combined with SBCAPE of 2000-3000 J/kg, supports a risk for a few long-track tornadoes. A violent tornado cannot be ruled out. The best chance of these enhanced ingredients coming together for long-track tornadoes appears to be from I-65 eastward and as far south as Shelby, Talladega, Clay, and Randolph counties. Balloon launches are planned for 330 PM, 6 PM, and 730 PM to sample critical changes in the low-level wind environment. 87/Grantham && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... Gadsden 51 55 34 51 33 / 90 40 30 0 0 Anniston 53 56 35 53 33 / 90 40 30 0 0 Birmingham 49 54 37 56 36 / 80 40 20 0 0 Tuscaloosa 48 56 37 60 37 / 70 30 10 0 0 Calera 50 55 37 59 36 / 80 40 20 0 0 Auburn 56 59 38 58 36 / 70 20 20 0 0 Montgomery 57 60 39 62 38 / 60 20 10 0 0 Troy 55 62 41 62 37 / 50 20 10 0 0 && .BMX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES/... None. &&
Hazardous weather outlook, Mar 19, 4:03 PM CDT, 4 hours 20 minutes before
Hazardous Weather Outlook...UPDATED National Weather Service Birmingham AL 403 PM CDT Mon Mar 19 2018 ALZ011>015-017>050-210015- Marion-Lamar-Fayette-Winston-Walker-Blount-Etowah-Calhoun-Cherokee- Cleburne-Pickens-Tuscaloosa-Jefferson-Shelby-St. Clair-Talladega- Clay-Randolph-Sumter-Greene-Hale-Perry-Bibb-Chilton-Coosa-Tallapoosa- Chambers-Marengo-Dallas-Autauga-Lowndes-Elmore-Montgomery-Macon- Bullock-Lee-Russell-Pike-Barbour- 403 PM CDT Mon Mar 19 2018 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for the counties served by the National Weather Service office in Birmingham. .DAY ONE...Outlook Through Tonight. Severe storms are expected late this afternoon into tonight These storms will move from west to east, entering northwest Central Alabama as early as 4 PM and exiting southeast Central Alabama as late as 2 AM Tuesday morning. The greatest potential for strong tornadoes is north of a line from Tuscaloosa to Calera to Wedowee. However, tornadoes, very large large hail, and damaging winds are possible area wide. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Tuesday through Sunday. Cooler air moving in behind the system will result in the potential for lows at or below freezing across parts of north central Alabama Wednesday night into Thursday morning. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Activation of storm spotters and emergency management will be needed through early Tuesday morning.
In the hours before
Local storm report, Mar 19, 8:00 PM CDT, 23 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
800 PM CDT MON MAR 19 2018
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0759 PM HAIL 1 NE SUSAN MOORE 34.08N 86.42W
03/19/2018 E1.75 INCH BLOUNT AL EMERGENCY MNGR
&&
MALLocal storm report, Mar 19, 8:03 PM CDT, 20 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
803 PM CDT MON MAR 19 2018
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0802 PM TSTM WND DMG 3 E SARDIS CITY 34.17N 86.08W
03/19/2018 ETOWAH AL EMERGENCY MNGR
TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN ALONG LEATH GAP ROAD.
&&
MALLocal storm report, Mar 19, 8:06 PM CDT, 17 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
806 PM CDT MON MAR 19 2018
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0805 PM HAIL 2 NE HOWELTON 34.08N 86.16W
03/19/2018 E1.00 INCH ETOWAH AL EMERGENCY MNGR
QUARTER SIZE HAIL NEAR EGYPT.
&&
MALLocal storm report, Mar 19, 8:08 PM CDT, 15 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
808 PM CDT MON MAR 19 2018
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0807 PM TSTM WND DMG TRAFFORD 33.82N 86.74W
03/19/2018 JEFFERSON AL EMERGENCY MNGR
A FEW TREES WERE BLOWN DOWN NEAR TRAFFORD.
&&
MALLocal storm report, Mar 19, 8:10 PM CDT, 13 minutes before
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</html>Local storm report, Mar 19, 8:19 PM CDT, 4 minutes before
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</html>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.
Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z
1.4 hours before the tornado, 117 km from the path. March 20, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 184 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -90 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 540 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 630 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 68 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 157 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 258 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.6 K/km
The surface observations
Anniston (ANB), 31 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:23 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.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of March 19, 2018
19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 19 | 4:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Tishomingo, MS | 0.8 | 125 | $500,000 | ||
| March 19 | 5:05 PM CDT | EF0 | Colbert, AL | 3.9 | 120 | |||
| March 19 | 5:10 PM CDT | EF1 | Franklin, AL | 1.2 | 100 | |||
| March 19 | 5:21 PM CDT | EF1 | Franklin, AL | 2.0 | 200 | |||
| March 19 | 5:54 PM CDT | EF0 | Lawrence, AL | 1.2 | 250 | |||
| March 19 | 6:08 PM CDT | EF2 | Limestone, AL | 23.5 | 600 | |||
| March 19 | 6:18 PM CDT | EF1 | Lawrence, AL | 6.8 | 100 | |||
| March 19 | 6:29 PM CDT | EF1 | Morgan, AL | 14.0 | 550 | |||
| March 19 | 6:30 PM CDT | EF1 | Jackson, AL | 0.5 | 200 | |||
| March 19 | 6:58 PM CDT | EF1 | Madison, AL | 4.8 | 150 | |||
| March 19 | 7:09 PM CDT | EF0 | Blount, AL | 0.9 | 100 | |||
| March 19 | 7:26 PM CDT | EF2 | Marshall, AL | 3.8 | 690 | |||
| March 19 | 7:50 PM CDT | EF1 | St. Clair, AL | 6.4 | 880 | |||
| March 19 | 7:50 PM CDT | EF0 | Franklin, TN | 3.7 | 150 | |||
| March 19 | 8:02 PM CDT | EF2 | St. Clair, AL | 15.7 | 2,000 | 1 | ||
| March 19 | 8:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Cherokee, AL | 1.1 | 400 | |||
| March 19 | 9:07 PM CDT | EF0 | Calhoun, AL | 0.8 | 138 | |||
| March 19 | 10:25 PM EDT | EF1 | Haralson, GA | 1.4 | 500 | 2 | $300,000 | |
| March 19 | 11:11 PM EDT | EF2 | Fulton, GA | 0.5 | 315 | $750,000 |
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.