EF2 tornado, Falakto to Lyle, Alabama, March 25, 2021

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 25, 2021

Touchdown

9:01 PM CDT (02:01 UTC)

Lifted

9:21 PM CDT (02:21 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

14.7 miles (23.6 km)

Path width

850 yards (777 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Chilton and Coosa counties

Touchdown point

32.809, -86.558

Lift-off point

32.891, -86.325

Record number

2103252001-01

50 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.

• Two houses in photo, one with substantial damage
• Garage destroyed, large garage door failure

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

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.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southeast Chilton County and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum winds near 120 mph.||The tornado first touched down along CR 495, just east of Clanton, with minor tree damage. The tornado traveled east northeast producing mainly minor tree damage and some structural damage as it crossed CR 97. The tornado then tracked across mainly inaccessible forest land before producing notable tree damage along CR 480 before tracking over several homes along Lake Mitchell, south of County Road 472. Most of the homes had minor roof damage or sustained more damage from fallen trees. One home off of County Road 481 had a garage completely collapse. There were also numerous hardwood trees snapped near the pumphouse on County Road 474. Near this point, the tornado reached its maximum intensity. The tornado then crossed Lake Mitchell into Coosa County.

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.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:47 UTC and running to 02:33 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 01:00 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.

Sylacauga (SCD), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:58 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 2021 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

19 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.