EF2 tornado, Society Hill to Prince Xrd, Alabama, March 3, 2019

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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.

4. 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.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. 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.

7. 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.

Rating

EF2

Date

March 3, 2019

Touchdown

2:27 PM CST (20:27 UTC)

Lifted

2:57 PM CST (20:57 UTC)

On the ground

30 minutes

Path length

29.1 miles (46.8 km)

Path width

1,300 yards (1189 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Counties

Macon and Lee counties

Touchdown point

32.346, -85.736

Lift-off point

32.491, -85.274

Record number

1903031427-01

394 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF4. The highest wind the damage implies is 170 mph.

• Road blocked, reported by county official.
• couple trees down; begin point
• center of path, slight ground rowing.
• Annihilation of trees. Debris in rows, with debris free rows wide enough to drive through. Vehicle rendered unrecognizable. Assessment upgraded by SOO and WCM

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

On the morning of Sunday March 3rd, 2019, an upper-level disturbance moved eastward from the Southern Plains into the southern Gulf Coast States. As favorable upper-level support and deep-layer forcing approached the lower Mississippi River Valley, a surface low pressure developed and moved northeastward into Central Alabama by late morning. Ahead of this surface low, a warm front initially along the Florida Panhandle moved northward allowing for the transport of warm, moist unstable air into southern and southeastern Central Alabama. This frontal boundary eventually became more stationary and stalled out north of the I-85 corridor as the strengthening surface low moved eastward. During this time, a large area of elevated thunderstorms affected portions northern Central Alabama while supercell thunderstorms initiated across the favorable warm sector. As these supercells intensified during the afternoon, parameters became favorable for tornadic thunderstorms in an area along and south of the I-85 corridor.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in far northeast Macon County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 88 mph.||The tornado touched down near Rogers Road just north of U.S. Highway 80. Numerous pine trees were uprooted as the tornado tracked northeast and crossed Callaway Baker Road, Highway 33 and Highway 43. The tornado began to strengthen as it moved east of Highway 43 and uprooted more pine trees before crossing into Lee County near Lee Road 812.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Macon County and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 115 mph.||The tornado touched down near the Mount Andrew community, along County Road 67. The damage was relatively weak and confined to tree damage as the tornado roughly paralleled County Road 67. The tornado crossed County Road 45 and then turned towards the northeast. It strengthened as it approached US Highway 29. The most concentrated and highest damage occurred in this location. Several stands of trees were completely uprooted, with none left standing. Many thousands of trees were uprooted in and near this spot. The tornado then crossed County Road 10, Red Road, and County Road 71. Many hundreds of trees were uprooted along this part of the damage path. As the tornado moved across County Road 24, Fitzpatrick Road and County Road 91, numerous trees were uprooted, several homes suffered varying degrees of roof damage, a few outbuildings were destroyed, and a farm irrigation system was damaged. The tornado moved across US Highway 80 and Highway 43 before crossing into Lee County.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in far southern Lee County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 105 mph.||This tornado was a continuation of the Macon County Tornado. The tornado entered Lee County about 1.2 miles north of Highway 80. It traveled northeast and crossed County Road 29, County Road 11, Cave Mill Road, and Alabama Highway 51. It continued northeast across County Road 166, County Road 165, and finally lifted near County Road 170. Numerous trees were snapped off and uprooted across southern Lee County. Many mobile homes and frame homes suffered varying degrees of roof damage. Two mobile homes were rolled over near the end of the damage path and one person was injured.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

3 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:24 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:48 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:05 UTC and running to 21:29 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 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.

The Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 30 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:27 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

44 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.