Did any tornadoes touch down Tuesday in Alabama?
Alabama escaped a wide-ranging severe weather outbreak on Tuesday, but there were several storms that left some damage in their wake.
The National Weather Service said it plans to take a look at that damage today and officially rule if it was caused by tornadoes or straight-line winds.
The weather service office in Birmingham said it plans to send storm survey teams to Chilton County, which was placed under a tornado warning late Tuesday as a wave of rain and storms tracked across Alabama.
Some damage was reported in the area after those storms moved through, and a tornado is assumed to be to blame.
The weather service said Wednesday morning that meteorologists will be looking at damage in extreme southwestern Chilton that could extend into northern Dallas County. Another area in southern Chilton County will also be surveyed.
The National Weather Service office in Huntsville also received damage reports from north Alabama, where there were also tornado warnings on Tuesday. As of 7 a.m. Wednesday the weather service hadn’t announced any plans for storm surveys or confirmed any tornadoes.
A tornado warning was also issued for Houston County in southeast Alabama early Wednesday morning, and the National Weather Service in Tallahassee has gotten reports of trees down in the area. However, the weather service was still dealing with storms in Florida and Georgia on Wednesday morning and hasn’t announced plans for any storm surveys yet.
Weather service storm survey teams go to the affected areas and look at storm damage. The orientation of that damage can help them (along with radar and observations) determine if was caused by a tornado or straight-line winds. If a tornado is confirmed, then it is given a preliminary rating (from EF-0 to EF-5) using the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
The weather service will issue updates on storm surveys later today.