How many tornadoes hit Alabama? Sorting through damage may take a while

Many Alabamians in north and central Alabama unfortunately will spend the next few days cleaning up after an intense round of severe weather on Tuesday.

There is no severe weather expected in Alabama today (Wednesday).

There were still rain and storms dropping southeastward over south Alabama on Wednesday morning, but the storms were under severe limits and expected to stay that way.

See also: Storms affect some school schedules

The bulk of the severe weather on Tuesday was across north Alabama.

The National Weather Service in Huntsville issued multiple tornado warnings starting with a rouge storm in Lauderdale and Colbert counties just after noon.

That weather service office issued its final tornado warning just before 10 p.m.

The weather service office in Birmingham also issued several tornado warnings, with the final one being for Bullock and Macon counties earlier this morning.

Tuesday’s storms produced several instances of baseball-sized hail, according to the weather service, as well as wind gusts that toppled numerous trees and power lines across the region.

The weather service has been flooded with reports of damage from across north Alabama and the northern part of central Alabama.

Forecasters encouraged Alabamians to send in pictures of storm damage to their local NWS offices:

The weather service in Huntsville said on Tuesday night that it had initial plans to send out three storm survey teams today to begin the process of analyzing storm damage and determine how many tornadoes touched down.

Forecasters cautioned that with so much damage those storm surveys may take days to complete.

The weather service office in Birmingham said has two survey teams heading out to look at damage in St. Clair, Calhoun, Cleburne and Bullock counties “to investigate 3 potential tornadoes.”

The weather service survey teams will go to sites affected by storms, look at the damage and determine whether it was caused by a tornado or straight-line winds.

If a tornado is confirmed then it will be given a rating using the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which goes from EF-0 (weak) to EF-5 (devastating).

The weather service typically issues updates on the storm survey teams’ progress.

While storms could linger in south Alabama today and showers will be possible tonight in north Alabama, no organized severe weather is expected, and there is no severe weather in the forecast for Alabama through the next week so far.