The National Weather Service has had surveyors in the field early this week after severe weather came through Alabama late Saturday evening into the early morning hours of Sunday. One of the reported possible tornadoes was in the Mount Hebron Community located near Douglas. People began reporting damage and severe weather in the area on social media overnight, but were unsure if the damage was caused by a tornado or straight line winds. The NWS determined it was indeed an Ef1 tornado.
Here are the findings released from the National Weather Service:
..Mount Hebron Tornado... Rating: EF1 Estimated Peak Wind: 100 mph Path Length /statute/: 0.76 miles Path Width /maximum/: 30 yards Fatalities: 0 Injuries: 0 Start Date: 02/16/2025 Start Time: 1:05 AM CST Start Location: 3 SSE Douglas / Marshall County / AL Start Lat/Lon: 34.133 / -86.3162 End Date: 02/16/2025 End Time: 1:11 AM CST End Location: 3 SSE Douglas / Marshall County / AL End Lat/Lon: 34.136 / -86.3035 Survey Summary: The tornado rapidly developed along a line of severe storms entering Southwestern Marshall County, first producing damage by snapping several softwood trees along Mount Hebron Road. The tornado continued along this road as it approached Mount Hebron Douglas Road, snapping large softwood branches along its path. The most concentrated damage occurred just northeast of the intersection with Mount Hebron Douglas Road, where several farm outbuildings and barns were destroyed. This was at and immediately east of the intersection with New Clear Creek Road. Here, a power pole was snapped about 5 to 7 feet from the top of the pole. Also at this location, a cattle trailer was overturned and moved several feet. A well-built farm outbuilding suffered collapsed walls here at this location, and the combination of this and the power pole led to the strongest point in this short- lived tornado: 100mph winds and 30 yards in width. The tornado continued northeast of this location to the farm next door, destroying a small hay barn and another farm outbuilding across the street. This particular building had a covered overhang and was open on the end where the tornado approached, which contributed to it's failing here. For this reason, the wind speeds were lower than at the adjacent farm to the southwest. No further damage was noted northeast of this hay barn location between here and Chestnut Drive. Other damage was noted in the vicinity of Mount Hebron Road to the north and the south, which was mainly large branches blown down or sporadic trees here and there that were broken. This was determined to be related to straight-line winds from the line of storms, as all damage was noted to be laying in the same direction and not convergent in nature. Thanks to Marshall County EMA for assistance on today's survey, and thanks to local news media for passing along both reports and videos from last night's event. && EF Scale: The Enhanced Fujita Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories: EF0.....65 to 85 mph EF1.....86 to 110 mph EF2.....111 to 135 mph EF3.....136 to 165 mph EF4.....166 to 200 mph EF5.....>200 mph NOTE: The information in this statement is preliminary and subject to change pending final review of the events and publication in NWS Storm Data. To see the report, and others in the state, you can do so here: http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/p.php?pil=PNSHUN&e=202502162344
