The NWS in Huntsville has completed the storm surveys from last Fridays tornadoes and have upgraded each tornado from their preliminary findings. The Update info is below.
Alabama - Limestone County
Northeastern Limestone County
Rating EF-1 Peak Wind 100 mph
Path Length 2.6 miles Peak Path Width 150 yards
Starting Time 3:39 PM Ending Time 3:46 PM
Summary
A tornado touched down in the Thach community during the late afternoon hours on Friday, March 2nd, 2012. The tornado first touched down just northwest of the intersection of Thach and Oak Grove road. The tornado moved nearly due east paralleling Thach road for much of its life cycle. The tornado appeared to skip along its path, leaving some structures and trees intact, but damaging others. The tornado finally lifted east of Highway 251. Numerous softwood and hardwood trees were uprooted along the tornado path. Several homes along the path had minor structural damage with loss of shingles, siding, and damage to one garage. One home had more significant damage to a section of its roof. A well constructed barn lost much of its roof.
This is the beginning of the tornado that hit the Thatch area in Limestone County. We were on I-65 at the Elkmont exit as it began to form. Although it looks ragged it was on the ground kicking up debris as it crossed I-65. These images were taken by one of my riders that day Kevin Mulack
Elkmont EF1
Elkmont EF1
Wall cloud that produced the EF1 tornado in Limestone County
Alabama - Madison & Limestone Counties Tornado #1
East Central Limestone to Northeastern Madison County
Rating EF-3 Peak Wind 140 mph
Path Length 34.4 miles Peak Path Width 250 yards
Starting Time 9:10 AM Ending Time 10:00 AM
Damage was first found along Lindsay Lane about 1 mile south of Highway 62 in East Central Limestone County. In the Canebrake neighborhood, numerous homes sustained significant roof loss with garage doors blown out and some exterior wall damage. Minor structural damage also occurred in the Indian Trace community off Woodland Road. The tornado then crossed Highway 72 near Piney Creek and continued to track northeast. At Mooresville Road and Pepper Road, numerous homes sustained significant damage, including major roof loss. A brick garage was collapsed and numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. As the tornado continued tracking northeast across McCulley Mill Road, additional homes were damaged, again sustaining major roof loss and some exterior wall collapse. Significant structural damage to homes occurred along Nick Davis Road near East Limestone Road. Damage continued to homes along Eagle Point Drive and Freedom Drive where a home completely lost its roof and other homes received major roof loss, broken windows and collapsed garages.
The tornado crossed into Madison County just north of Orville Smith Road where a single wide modular home lost much of its roof and trees were snapped around it. Major structural damage was seen again at the intersection of Yarbrough Road and Old Railroad Bed Road. This was one of the worst hit areas around the Harvest Community. Damage to homes, mostly collapsed roofs and some exterior wall damage continued east along Yarbrough Road across Bridges Drive and Bedford Lane, just before Wall Triana Blvd. Also in this area, power poles were snapped near the base. Damage continued northeast toward Highway 53 just south of Jeff Road where the survey ended due to inclement weather.
At the conclusion of Friday's storm survey near Highway 53 and Jeff road, the nws storm survey team picked up the damage path crossing Highway 53 heading northeast. Evidence of trees snapped and uprooted was seen along Quarter Mountain road, Carter's Gin road, and Beaver Dam road just before Pulaski Pike. More significant daamge began to be seen along Patterson Lane where wooden power poles were snapped, numerous trees were uprooted and several homes experienced roof loss. A large metal barn/shed lost its roof and some of its walls were collapsed inward. Damage continued along Highway 231 around Meridianville Middle School, where a concrete power pole was snapped and minor roof damage occurred to nearby buildings.
The tornado then appeared to strengthen between Hubert road and Walker Lane, including Mitzi Drive. In this area, EF-2 to low end EF-3 damage was seen. At this location, several single story homes were destroyed. Other homes received significant damage with complete loss of roofs and failure of exterior walls. Estimated path width in this area was 200 to 250 yards. Just northeast of this location, along Charley Patterson Road, more EF-3 damage occurred as three brick veneer/cinderblock houses were reduced to rubble. The tornado continued to produce significant damage along Butler Road (just south of Walker Lane), where additional concrete power poles were snapped and large oak trees were snapped and uprooted. The damage path continued north of New Market, near Hillsboro with additional trees snapped/uprooted and some roof damage(loss of shingles) were seen to at some residences. Damage here suggested the tornado was beginning to weaken. Along Davis Road, just south of Moe Road, numerous trees were snapped or uprooted with severe shingle loss to a house about 200 yards from the road. Beyond this, the tornado appeared to weaken and lift as it traveled across the higher plateau region of extreme northeast Madison County. Attempts to find the damage path on the other side of the ridgeline (along Mountain Fork Road) were unsuccessful.
*****Due to the information gathered from this followup survey, the start point of this tornado has been shifted several miles southwest near the Athens Country Club and Golf Course along Hatfield Lake Road off of Highway 31 and the EF Scale intensity has been raised to an EF-3 from an EF-2 rating. Several trees were snapped and uprooted along a path that crossed I-65 and Strain Road.
The below images are from the Cane Break subdivision where EF2 damage was found
These images are from the Meridianville area where EF3 damage was found
Alabama - Madison County Tornado #2
North Central to Northeast Madison County
Rating EF-2 (Prior EF-1)
Peak Wind 130 mph (Prior 105)
Path Length 7.3 miles (Prior 6.3) Peak Path Width 250 yards (Prior 150)
Starting Time 10:06 AM Ending Time 10:15 AM
A tornado of EF-2 intensity with a peak wind speed of 130 mph crossed portions of north central into northeast Madison county Friday morning (March 2, 2012). The tornado appeared to touch down just south of the Meridianville/Madison County Executive Airport off of Meridianville Bottom Road, where several trees were snapped. The tornado continued its path eastward to Buckhorn High School before lifting at a farm field across the street from Winchester road from the school.
The tornado snapped power poles and brought down power lines along Moore's Mill Road just north of Darwin Road. The tornado then intensified and destroyed a silo just east of that location before snapping trees and collapsing a barn on Macon Lane. The EF-2 tornado continued east causing significant tree damage and structural loss to residences along Rube Robinson Road and Morning Mist Drive. Most residences experienced roof damage (Loss of shingles) and blown out windows. One home on Morning Mist Drive completely collapsed and was torn off its foundation. The tornado was at its peak width of about 220 yards at this point before narrowing to to 50 to 100 yards as it re-crossed Rube Robinson Road. The tornado collapsed a roof and barn in this area and then crossed fields for about 1 mile before reaching residents adjacent to Buckhorn High School on Shady Oak Lane and Maysville Lane. A power pole and numerous trees were down or snapped along Maysville Lane. A residence experienced significant damage, with brick walls buckled and a large portion of the roof torn off. A nearby cinder block wall of a garage collapsed.
The tornado then tracked through the Buckhorn High School campus with a path width of 50 to 100 yards. A block building used by the ROTC students adjacent to the stadium collapsed. Several portions of the roof of the high school were torn off. Several cars in the parking lot were moved, twisted, and damaged with some windows being blown out. The tornado then crossed Winchester Road and severely collapsed a home, snapped and uprooted trees and strewn debris downwind across an adjacent cotton field where the tornao is believe to have lifted.
