March 25, 2010 - Large Hail and Isolated Tornado Event
Showers and thunderstorms ahead of an approaching cold front and associated surface low brought rain and thunderstorms to the Tennessee Valley just before daybreak through the morning hours on the 25th. As the morning and early afternoon progressed, this activity pushed east into Georgia around 1 pm. This activity produced some heavier rainfall over much of northern Alabama, but no severe weather.
As the afternoon progressed some surface heating occurred as the clouds thinned. As a result, instability increased in over northern Alabama. This can be seen in the surface analysis below, as surface temperatures climbed into the mid 60s. Marginal low level moisture was present with dewpoints in the mid to upper 50s. Locations south of the red line had dewpoints in the 50s, while the purple line depicts where dewpoints were above 60 degrees.
At the same time, shear (a wind parameter needed for supercell and tornadic storm development) increased. This increase in shear aided by a 90 knot (103 mph) jet streak pushing east from eastern Texas and Lousiana at 500 mb (around 19,000 feet) and into northern Alabama along and ahead of the cold front. This wind maximum can be seen in the 500 mb analysis chart below, outlined in purple.
Shear through the late afternoon and early evening hours remained high enough for an isolated tornado threat. Wet-bulb temperatures were at an ideal level for large hail (between 7000 and 9000 feet) throughout the day and into the early evening hours. This set the stage for the development of severe thunderstorms producing large hail and isolated tornadoes.
Below are loops of radar images around the time the tornado touched down in Morgan County. The loop on the left shows storm relative velocity between 5:35 pm and 5:58 pm. During this window, the tornado developed and moved across extreme southeastern portions of Morgan County, just northwest of the Joppa community. The image on the right is a base storm reflectivity product and shows precipitation. Click on the image to initiate a larger loop in a new window.
Morgan County Tornado Survey Summary
Below are some pictures of the damage along the path of this tornado.
Damage Reports for Entire Severe Weather Event:
NWUS54 KHUN 270223 LSRHUN PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...CORRECTED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HUNTSVILLE AL 923 PM CDT FRI MAR 26 2010 ..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON... ..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE.... ..REMARKS.. 0455 PM HAIL 4 N FLORENCE 34.88N 87.68W 03/25/2010 E1.00 INCH LAUDERDALE AL FIRE DEPT/RESCUE QUARTER SIZED HAIL IN THE OAK HILL SUBDIVISION NORTH OF FLORENCE. REPORTED BY FLORENCE FIRE DEPT. 0540 PM TORNADO 8 W FALKVILLE 34.38N 87.05W 03/25/2010 F1 MORGAN AL NWS STORM SURVEY AN EF1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST WEST OF MASSEY WITH A PATH LENGTH OF 3 MILES AND A MAXIMUM WIDTH OF 50 YARDS. MAXIMUM WINDS WERE ESTIMATED TO BE 100 MPH. A MOBILE HOME WAS SEVERELY DAMAGED AS WELL AS TWO CHICKEN HOUSES. TREES WERE ALSO SNAPPED. 0540 PM TSTM WND DMG 8 W FALKVILLE 34.38N 87.05W 03/25/2010 MORGAN AL FIRE DEPT/RESCUE POSSIBLE TORNADO. VOLNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORTED TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN ON SOUTH JOHNSON CHAPEL RD. NEAR MASSEY. 0610 PM TSTM WND GST S SOMERVILLE 34.47N 86.80W 03/25/2010 E45.00 MPH MORGAN AL AMATEUR RADIO 45-50 MPH WINDS AND PEA SIZE HAIL REPORTED SOUTH OF SOMERVILLE. 0612 PM HAIL BATTLEGROUND 34.30N 87.00W 03/25/2010 M1.00 INCH CULLMAN AL TRAINED SPOTTER 1.0 INCH HAIL REPORTED IN BATTLEGROUND. 0618 PM HAIL N WEST POINT 34.24N 86.96W 03/25/2010 M0.50 INCH CULLMAN AL EMERGENCY MNGR DIME SIZE HAIL REPORTED NORTH OF WEST POINT. 0635 PM FUNNEL CLOUD 5 W FAIRVIEW 34.25N 86.77W 03/25/2010 CULLMAN AL NWS STORM SURVEY FUNNEL CLOUD REPORTED 5 MILES WEST OF FAIRVIEW. NO DAMAGE FOUND ON NWS STORM SURVEY. && $$ KNS