On the afternoon of March 3, 2019, a violent and long-tracked EF4 tornado struck portions of eastern Alabama and western Georgia, causing extreme damage along its path. This tornado was the deadliest tornado in the United States since the 2013 Moore tornado, killing 23 and injuring 97. This tornado was part of a larger tornado outbreak that affected the Southeastern United States on this same day. This outbreak produced numerous tornadoes across Alabama and Georgia. This was the deadliest and strongest tornado of this outbreak, and the 8th deadliest in Alabama state history.
The tornado first touched down at 2:00 p.m. CST (3:00 p.m. EST) near Society Hill, Alabama, and stayed on the ground for 76 minutes over a path, ravaging numerous homes and businesses, as well as doing significant tree damage. The tornado killed 23 people along the path, all of them in Alabama, and injured nearly 100 along the entire extent of the path. The tornado was at its widest point. The tornado continued into Georgia, causing up to EF3 damage in some areas. The tornado lasted 47 minutes in Georgia and traveled before lifting near Talbotton, Georgia at 3:16 p.m. CST (4:16 p.m. EST).
Meteorological Synopsis
A week before the event took place, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) noted that there may be a convective event in their day 8 outlook, but there was not enough confidence to issue a 15% outlined area. The SPC continued with this wording but no outline until 3 days before the event, when the SPC outlined a large 15% risk area for most of Alabama and Mississippi, as well as some states westward. The confidence in the forecasts continued to grow on a potential for several tornadoes, some being strong over a small corridor of Southern and Eastern Alabama and Central Georgia, where they issued an enhanced risk (level 3 out of 5). They also expanded the slight risk further to the east and south. The SPC maintained an enhanced risk through day 1, and expanding in all directions to include a larger area. However, this event could have verified as a high risk had the SPC chosen to issue one. The 12z surface analysis indicated that a broad area of low pressure was located over the far western Carolinas. An inland stationary front, baroclinic zone and an associated warm front extending southwestward across north-central Georgia to extreme southeast Texas. There, a surface low carrying a powerful cold front with arctic air and wintry weather southward. The entire feature was moving to the northeast. Significant convective available potential energy (CAPE) was noted offshore in the 12z SPC mesoanalysis. By 18z as the front lifted northward, CAPE of 1000-2500 j/kg was noted over inland areas in the mesoanalysis. Combined with strong 0–6 km bulk shear of about and Storm Relative Helicity of 300-500 m2/s2, the environment was more than favorable for the development of semi-discrete supercells within a squall line capable of producing several potentially strong tornadoes.