EF3 tornado, Greensboro Muni Arpt to Brierfield, 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 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.

4. 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.

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

EF3

Date

March 25, 2021

Touchdown

4:26 PM CDT (21:26 UTC)

Lifted

6:04 PM CDT (23:04 UTC)

On the ground

98 minutes

Path length

79.7 miles (128.2 km)

Path width

2,300 yards (2103 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

13

Counties

Hale, Perry, Bibb and Chilton counties

Touchdown point

32.689, -87.739

Lift-off point

33.221, -86.525

Record number

2103251526-01

543 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 142 mph.

• New contruction home blown off foundation.
• widespread trees snapped and uprooted. Homes nearby damaged. Based on aerial imagery.
• Swath of snapped trees from soccer fields to ridgetop
• Massive and widespread to end of street

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 northern Hale County and determined that it was consistent with an EF3 tornado, with maximum winds near 150 mph.||A strong, long-track tornado traveled across Hale, Perry, Bibb, Chilton, and Shelby Counties during the afternoon of March 25, 2021. It is estimated that the tornado had a 98 minute life span, with a path length near 80 miles. It is impossible to know the exact number, but tens of thousands of trees were snapped or uprooted. The volume and extent of snapped trees pushed the rating to EF-3, around 150 mph. Along the tornados path, hundreds of residences were damaged or destroyed, either directly by wind or due to fallen trees.||The tornado began along Highway 17 just south of the town of Sawyerville. The tornado rapidly gained strength and widened as it neared and crossed Highway 14. Across Hale County, a large swath of hardwood and softwood trees were uprooted. Some debarking of trees was observed just south of Highway 14, probably from high velocity debris throwing. Five large transmission towers were downed on the north side of Highway 14. These towers are rated for 120+ mph winds according to representatives from Alabama Power. It is unknown whether this was due to a domino effect or direct blowdown of each tower. Either way, a powerful tornado occurred. Residential damage included wall collapse, roofing torn off, shifting off of foundation, or total structural loss. There were six minor injuries in Hale County.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northwest Perry County and determined that it was consistent with an EF3 tornado, with maximum winds near 150 mph.||A strong, long-track tornado traveled across Hale, Perry, Bibb, Chilton, and Shelby Counties during the afternoon of March 25, 2021. It is estimated that the tornado had a 98 minute life span, with a path length of 80 miles. The tornado crossed from Hale into Perry County near County Road 51. A mobile home was destroyed with a site built home on the same property sustaining roof loss and some shifting of the crawl space foundation. Structural damage was most apparent in the vicinity of the confluence of County Road 23 and Old Salem Church Road. In this area, mobile homes were destroyed, with one site built home having roof loss and exterior wall failure, with another sustaining roof loss and some warping of the wood framing from wind entry. A nearby church had roof loss with an adjacent metal building sustaining a lot of damage consisting significant peeling of paneling and structure warping from wind entry. Other structural damage occurred along the path as well. The tornado crossed into Bibb County Road just south of County Road 44.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southern Bibb County and determined that it was consistent with an EF3 tornado, with maximum winds near 150 mph.||A strong, long-track tornado traveled across Hale, Perry, Bibb, Chilton, and Shelby Counties during the afternoon of March 25, 2021. It is estimated that the tornado had a 98 minute life span, with a path length of 80 miles. The tornado crossed into Bibb County from Perry County just south of County Road 44. There were three primary areas of concentrated structural damage in Bibb County. Along Belcher Road, anchoring to a metal building used for farm equipment failed, sending the structure crashing into an adjacent house. Across the field, a site built home had sections of roof removed and its open face garage blown away, with an adjacent farm building collapsed. In Centreville city limits, snapped trees were prevalent near the Cahaba River. Along Montgomery Road east of town, heavy damage occurred where trees were debarked. Mobile homes were crushed by fallen trees and site built homes had roof damage. In the town of Ashby, along Buzzard Road, several mobile homes were destroyed. Anchoring was not apparent, though at least one of the mobile homes was thrown a fair distance. Site built homes on the same street suffered light to heavy roof damage but were still standing. The tornado crossed into northwest Chilton County just south of County Road 108. There were five minor injuries in Bibb County.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:59 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:30 UTC and running to 00:47 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 22:26 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 Birmingham radar (KBMX), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:22 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.