EF2 tornado, Fordyce to Mt Ville, Alabama, January 12, 2023

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

January 12, 2023

Touchdown

2:08 PM CST (20:08 UTC)

Lifted

2:31 PM CST (20:31 UTC)

On the ground

23 minutes

Path length

20.7 miles (33.4 km)

Path width

1,600 yards (1463 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Chambers and Troup counties

Touchdown point

32.987, -85.413

Lift-off point

33.097, -85.088

Record number

2301121408-01

234 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX and NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 128 mph.

• Band of trees snapped/uprooted both sides of road

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

Numerous strong to severe thunderstorms impacted Central Alabama during the morning and afternoon hours of Thursday, January 12th, 2023. Several supercell thunderstorms spawned multiple tornadoes which caused significant damage in many areas. The severe thunderstorms also produced damaging straight-line winds and hail up to golf ball size.

A line of strong thunderstorms moved into north and central Georgia during the afternoon through the evening on Thursday, January 12th and spawned numerous tornadoes, including several that were long track and significant. Ahead of this line, a few supercells also spawned tornadoes in portions of central and eastern Georgia. Upon further examination of radar data and high resolution areal imagery, it was found that several tornadoes rotated around and within a larger vortex and caused the widespread damage in the area near Griffin GA, over 2 miles wide in some cases. |The result was that as many as 4 tornadoes were on the ground simultaneously in SW Spalding County, which were rotating around the larger circulation, merging together in several cases and crossing paths. The presence of 3 mergers was identified in the reanalysis. Additional analysis revealed that wind speeds in the EF3 storm reached|as high as 155mph or high end EF3. This confirmed a total of 14 tornadoes, including 10 which resulted from the same storm/larger mesocyclone.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in western Chambers County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum winds near 100 mph. This long track tornado began in Autauga County and tracked across northwest Elmore County, southern Coosa County, Tallapoosa County, and into Chambers County just north of Highway 118. The tornado continued northeast into Chambers County causing additional swaths of mainly timber damage in the EF0 to EF1 range. The tornado continued along County Road 114 for several miles before lifting just east of Highway 77.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in eastern Chambers County and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum winds near 130 mph. The tornado touched down on County Road 114, about six-tenths of a mile west of Highway 431. The tornado tracked northeast and intensified once it passed through the Five Points community, snapping and uprooting many trees along County Road 267 and causing roof damage to a barn. The swath of timber damage became almost a mile wide along County Roads 281 and 282 and at least one residence suffered roof damage. The tornado continued to intensify as it crossed County Road 268 where large swaths of pine trees were snapped. A manufactured home was completely destroyed and blown downstream near County Road 278. Most of the structural damage happened along County Road 284. A couple residences suffered significant shingle damage, one had siding damage, and a manufactured home had its porch ripped off, impacting its walls. Another manufactured building was blown off its footings. Another significant swath of snapped pines was observed on County Road 283, some snapped off only a couple feet off the ground. The tornado then crossed into Georgia about eight-tenths of a mile southeast of the intersection of County Road 439 and County Road 283.

This long-track tornado originated in Chambers County, Alabama. The entire survey was conducted by NWS Birmingham. Estimated start point was near County Road 114 west of Highway 431 to the southwest of Five Points. Northeast of Five Points, the tornado intensified, snapping and uprooting many trees along County Road 267 and causing roof damage to a barn. The swath of timber damage became almost a mile wide along County Roads 281 and 282 and at least one residence there suffered roof damage. The tornado continued to intensify as it crossed County Road 268 where large swaths of pine trees were snapped. A manufactured home was completely destroyed and blown downstream near County Road 278. Most of the structural damage happened along County Road 284. A couple residences suffered significant shingle damage, one had siding damage, and a manufactured home had its porch ripped off, impacting its walls. Another manufactured building was blown off its footings. Another significant swath of snapped pines was observed on County Road 283, some snapped off only a couple feet off the ground. The tornado then crossed into Georgia, continuing to snap trees along West Point Lake. Numerous trees were snapped along the end of North State Line Rd.as the tornado crossed the lake. The tornado began to weaken some as it made its way into Deer Point Rd and Rock Mills Road where tree damage and some damage to shingles and gutters occurred for a few homes. The tornado continued east through mostly wooded areas, doing damage to pines and crossing just north of a few homes along Neely Rd. Weakening continued as it continued NE with only minor tree damage occurring before the tornado dissipated along Cameron Mill Rd.

Re-cycling from a parent supercell tracking from Chambers County (Alabama) into Troup County (Georgia), this tornado touched down just south of Callaway Airport, snapping several trees along Pegasus Pkwy. Damage quickly picked up just to the northeast approaching Whitesville Road (just north of I-85) where several one-story metal buildings had significant roof damage, along with their garage doors and windows blown in. Numerous trees in this area were either snapped or uprooted. Several power poles along Orchard Hill Road were broken off near the top. Maximum winds in this area were determined to be in the 90-100 mph range (EF-1). As the tornado continued northeast, a large warehouse building at the Vaughan Xpress transportation facility sustained significant damage. About 1/4 of the large warehouse was completely destroyed with several metal bolt anchors stretched or ripped up out of the concrete pad. Winds were estimated between 110-120 mph at this time and as it crossed I-85, a large number of trees were snapped (some near the base) or uprooted. Widespread significant damage by this strong tornado continued across the Baldwin Park community. In this location, more than 30 homes had significant damage; one and two-story homes lost major parts of the roof and upper level floors along with at least partial-collapse of exterior walls. Debris was thrown for hundreds of yards. Winds in this area likely maxed out around 120 mph, making this an EF-2 tornado. The tornado continued east-northeast, cutting down trees across Upper Big Springs Road, I-185, and Stewart Road (east of I-185). There's a fairly rural/wooded area between Stewart Road and the next road (Parmer road) about 2 miles apart but damage picked back up along Hwy 109/Greenville Road (mostly trees snapped/uprooted). The tornado then ripped through the town of Mountville, snapping and uprooting multiple medium to large trees along Trippe and College streets. A couple more trees were uprooted along Wood Road as it moved into Meriwether County. Numerous trees were down near the intersection og Keith Rd and Evans road as the damage veered right. The tornado continued across a wood area, crossing Beech Creek, with more large branches found snapped on Wilbur Keith Rd near Fox Den Rd. The giant mesocyclone continued east where the tornado merged with the ongoing Meriwether/Northwest Pike tornado near Highway 100 and Forrest Rd.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:57 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:26 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:06 UTC and running to 21:52 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.

La_grange (LGC), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Atlanta radar (KFFC), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:05 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 2023 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

41 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.