Damage assessment teams from the National Weather Service spent the day investigating violent Christmas night weather in Central Alabama. Their preliminary report is that two tornadoes hit the area, one near Coaling in Tuscaloosa County and the other near downtown Birmingham. Tuscaloosa’s twister was measured as an EF-0, with winds at 75 mph and as wide as the length of one and a half football fields. An EF-0 is considered the weakest type of tornado, but still able to do damage to homes and businesses.
The NWS thinks Birmingham’s twister was an EF-2 with winds at one hundred and thirty miles per hour. That tornado struck a neighborhood near Birmingham’s downtown area. Photos released by assessment teams show destroyed structures and damaged cars. Flooding overnight and during the next several days is also a concern. The storms that accompanied the tornadoes dropped enough rain to raise water levels in rivers and lakes by dozen feet or more, which washed out streets and stranded residents overnight in what Birmingham declared was a “civil emergency” where motorists were asked to stay off the roads.
NWS forecasters say more rain is coming tonight, tomorrow, Monday, and into the New Year’s holiday. All of Alabama’s major rivers are at capacity, and more rain could create more flooding in urban areas like Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, and Birmingham. The Christmas night storms were part of several days of violent weather that caused fatalities in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee.
