EF0 tornado, Clayton Muni Arpt, Alabama, March 12, 2026

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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, as surveyed

EF0, preliminary

Date

March 12, 2026

Touchdown

3:36 AM CDT (08:36 UTC)

Lifted

3:37 AM CDT (08:37 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Barbour County

Touchdown point

31.848, -85.482

Lift-off point

31.846, -85.474

Highest wind the damage implies

85 mph

Surveyed by

NWS BMX

The office's name for it

John C Martin Road Tornado

Survey last edited

March 13, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

An area of damage was surveyed along John C Martin Rd to the south of Clayton and the damage was determined to be the result of a brief, EF0 tornado. The tornado touched down just east of a couple chicken houses where it damaged the roof of a metal outbuilding and ejected pieces of tin into a nearby field. The tornado continued east a short distance through the field then it crossed John C Martin Rd where multiple softwood trees were snapped and uprooted at the intersection of Hovey Rd and John C Martin Rd. A house across the street lost a few shingles and most of the windows were blown out on the front of the home. Several trees in the yard were snapped or uprooted. The tornado quickly weakened as it continued east-southeast into an open field where several large branches were snapped along a tree line then the tornado dissipated shortly after.

Written by NWS BMX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

25 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Roof paneling pulled from center of roof
• Estimated Tornado Start Point
• Uproot facing north-northeast. Other uproot nearby facing south.
• Estimated Tornado Endpoint

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

A line of thunderstorms ahead of a cold front moved across Central Alabama from late on March 11 into the early morning hours of March 12. After initially only producing a few areas of wind damage, the line quickly intensified east of I-65. Around 1 AM CDT, several trees were downed across Coosa and Tallapoosa counties. Scattered tree damage was also reported in Montgomery before activity quikcly ramped up after 2:30 AM CDT. Multiple areas of rotation within the line produced three EF-0 tornadoes across Pike, Barbour, and Russell counties, along with numerous instances of tree and structural damage from straight-line wind in these three counties along with Bullock and Lee. The line exited into Georgia by 4:30 AM CDT.

An area of damage was surveyed along John C Martin Rd to the south of Clayton and the damage was determined to be the result of a brief, EF0 tornado. The tornado touched down just east of a couple chicken houses where it damaged the roof of a metal outbuilding and ejected pieces of tin into a nearby field. The tornado continued east a short distance through the field then it crossed John C Martin Rd where multiple softwood trees were snapped and uprooted at the intersection of Hovey Rd and John C Martin Rd. A house across the street lost a few shingles and most of the windows were blown out on the front of the home. Several trees in the yard were snapped or uprooted. The tornado quickly weakened as it continued east-southeast into an open field where several large branches were snapped along a tree line then the tornado dissipated shortly after.

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 04:32 UTC and running to 09:31 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:31 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.

Eufaula (EUF), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Ft Rucker radar (KEOX), 43 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:35 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 2026 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

23 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.