AccuWeather’s live coverage of the severe weather outbreak in the Southeast has ended. Scroll down to read our coverage of the storms throughout Thursday, March 25. For continued coverage, stick with AccuWeather.com and tune into the AccuWeather TV Network.
Pelham, Alabama, Mayor Gary Waters declared a curfew will be in effect after a tornado damaged several areas of the city on Thursday, March 25. The curfew will begin at 10 p.m. CDT and ends at 6 a.m. each morning through Monday. The city estimated 30 to 50 homes and/or structures had been damaged in the city, though those numbers are preliminary as crews continue to assess the damage.
As Alabama deals with severe weather that sent a round of tornadoes spiraling through the state, First Lady Jill Biden and actress Jennifer Garner are postponing a trip to Jasper and Birmingham, Alabama, that was originally scheduled for Friday, March 26. A new date has not yet been announced, AL.com reported. The trip was supposed to be part of Biden’s “Help is Here Tour” that aims to explain how the federal stimulus plan will be able to cut child poverty in half, the White House says.
The death toll in Calhoun County has increased to at least five after a tornado passed through the area earlier on Thursday. According to WBRC News, the Calhoun County Coroner confirmed that five people are reported dead amid the severe weather. Three family members were killed in their home, a fourth person was killed in a mobile home and the fifth person died along Wellington Road.
At least 10 tornado reports have been recorded by the NOAA Storm Prediction Center (SPC), mostly within the state of Alabama, over the past 12 hours. As the onslaught of severe weather continues across the southeast, residents from Noxubee County, Mississippi, and Hale to Calhoun counties in Alabama have been left salvaging what they could from the storms. Multiple fatalities have been reported in Alabama, and the scale of the property damage ranges from snapped trees and downed wires to destroyed homes.
Nearly 35,000 power outages were reported across the state of Alabama by Thursday evening amid a severe weather breakout that led to destruction throughout the state. Jefferson County has the most outages in the state with over 9,000 customers out of power, according to poweroutage.us. Over 32,000 people out of power were Alabama Power customers.
Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade reported at least three fatalities and two injuries following a tornado in the Ohatchee and Wellington area on Thursday, WVTM13 reported. Ohatchee sits about 60 miles east of Birmingham, the two towns impacted not far from the Alabama-Georgia border. Wade told the news source that some of the areas hit hard by the storm were on River Road, Highway 77 and the Wellington Post Office. ABC 33/40 meteorologist James Spann also reported three fatalities in Ohatchee.
Homes, power lines and trees were torn apart on Thursday after severe weather made its way through Alabama. Photos reveal that many homes were left destroyed from the severe weather in the Eagle Point community near Birmingham and in Pelham County. According to meteorologists, more tornadoes could be on the way for the state.
ABC 33 /40 meteorologist James Spann shown during a live broadcast as a severe weather outbreak struck the Birmingham, Alabama, area on March 25, 2021. (ABC 33/40)
James Spann, the venerable television meteorologist for ABC 33 /40 in Birmingham, Alabama, said during a live broadcast on Thursday that his home was among those damaged as a tornado outbreak unfolded across the state. Spann, who has earned a near folk hero status for his poised demeanor during live coverage of severe weather, said his home sustained damage and that his wife was on the premises at the time a storm ripped through his neighborhood, according to accounts from viewers posting on Twitter. According to ABC News meteorologist Ginger Zee, Spann briefly left the live broadcast, but returned and said that his wife and family were unharmed. Not long after, a GoFundMe page aimed at raising money to help Spann had been launched by an apparent fan. “James Spann is an incredible meteorologist from Alabama,” Andre Brooks said, imploring people to help Spann repair the damages. Meanwhile, the Twitter account Stormchasernick posted a photo that pretty much summed up how most people feel about Spann, showing the meteorologist with a Superman cape superimposed on his back.
Trees are snapped and power lines are down in communities southeast of Birmingham, Alabama, after a large tornado tracked through the area shortly before 2 p.m. CDT. Pictures of the damage flooded social media shortly after the tornado moved through, but the extent of the damage is unknown. The Pelham Police Department confirmed that multiple homes were damaged in Chandalar, Alabama, with "extensive damage" in the Crosscreek community. The police department added, “Please stay off the road and do not go into tornado damaged areas.”
A house in Eagle Point, Alabama, was completely destroyed after a tornado moved through the area on March 25, 2021. (Twitter/ @kellibrookemac)
The University of Alabama announced on Thursday that school operations would be suspended through Friday morning in response to the high risk of tornadoes and severe weather. This includes all classes, including online and remote ones, as well as school buildings and facilities. The school also announced that it would be opening all campus storm shelters if a tornado watch is issued.
Last week, footage filmed from inside a University of Alabama shelter captured widespread overcrowding concerns and a lack of mask-wearing. Large amounts of students rushed out of the shelters before the tornado warnings were lifted despite homes and campus buildings in the area being threatened.
A supercell thunderstorm that spawned a tornado just south of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, around 12:30 p.m. CDT is now set to pass just south of Birmingham. A radar-confirmed tornado is still present with radar detecting debris flying through the air. People in the path of this storm need to seek shelter immediately and remain sheltered until the threat has ended. If a tornado remains on the ground, it could track directly across Interstate 65 near Alabaster, significantly disrupting travel on the highway.
UPDATE: At 1:36 p.m. CDT, a rare tornado emergency was issued for areas southeast of Birmingham due to a confirmed large and destructive tornado. The tornado was located near Indian Springs Village and was moving northeast at 45 mph. This storm has already produced at least one long-lived tornado and could eventually lead to a tornado threat in places such as Pell City, Ragland and Ohatchee, Alabama.
Ahead of today’s severe weather ramp up in Alabama, widespread flooding has wreaked havoc on major roadways, most notably on Interstate 65. Photos shared on social media depict the floodwaters completely covering parts of the interstate near exit 308 and vehicles attempting to drive through the dangerously deep waters. According to CBS 42, the flooding has forced officials to close the northbound and southbound lanes for the Cullman County area.
Interstate 65 was underwater near Cullman, Alabama, after heavy rain on Wednesday night and Thursday night caused flooding ahead of the severe weather outbreak. (Twitter/@GimmeAllTheDogs)
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency for 46 of the state’s 67 counties that are in the highest risk of severe weather. This includes the cities of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Huntsville. “This severe weather event, coupled with the COVID-19 public health emergency, poses extraordinary conditions of disaster and of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state,” Ivey’s order stated. Northern and central Alabama were hit with an initial round of storms on Thursday morning, but a second round of stronger storms is forecast to move through this part of the state on Thursday afternoon into Thursday night.
More than 5 million people are on alert for tornadoes as a severe weather event starts to take shape. The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a tornado watch that they called a "particularly dangerous situation" due to the severity of the anticipated storms in parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. “Numerous tornadoes and several intense tornadoes” are expected in this area, along with wind gusts up to 80 mph and hail nearly as large as baseballs, the NWS said. People living in this area should make sure to have their cell phones charged, keep extra batteries at hand and have a plan of where to go for safety if a tornado approaches.
People planning to get tested for COVID-19 in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama may need to wait until Friday as some testing sites have been closed due to the threat of severe thunderstorms. This includes a big drive-thru testing site in downtown Nashville. Testing centers in Nashville are scheduled to reopen on Friday morning, but the COVID-19 hotline remains open and available to the public, the Nashville Fire Department said in a statement. There is the potential that a testing site could be closed for a longer period of time if a damaging storm hits the location on Thursday or Thursday night.
For the first time since 1991, March has seen the NOAA Storm Prediction Center (SPC) release its most urgent warning on two separate occasions. The “high risk” warning is a severe weather outlook the center reserves for the most dangerous of occasions and is the highest level on the severe weather outlooks scale from 1 to 5 for daily outlooks. According to SPC data, only one high risk warning was forecast in 2018, 2019 and 2020 combined. This month, the center has issued the rare warning on March 17 and March 25.
In 1991, the SPC released five such outlooks over a seven-day span. Similar to this month’s severe threats, 1991’s dangers featured dozens of tornadoes, although history tells us the severity of the twisters was much stronger 30 years ago than what residents have endured thus far this month. The first issuance was on March 22, 1991, a day that brought 23 tornadoes, three of which were rated F3 strength. Then from March 26-29, another 73 twisters were reported, the strongest of which reached F4 strength. Both outbreaks focused on the Midwest, and in all, 13 people were killed by the total of 157 tornadoes reported in the country that month.
AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno issued a stark warning on Thursday for millions who live across the South. "There’s going to be a tornado outbreak. There’s going to be widespread wind damage, and there’s going to be hail,” he said, adding that dangerous severe weather will be underway during the afternoon hours. You can watch Rayno break down the storm setup, timing and greatest risks in his latest video.
While the severe weather is forecast to ramp up on Thursday, residents throughout Texas got pelted with the outbreak’s first strikes on Wednesday. Massive chunks of hail were unleashed on the Lone Star State as the Storm Prediction Center tallied 32 reports of hail, 29 of which came from Texas, two from Arkansas and one from Mississippi. Video from the day captured the hail pelting cars and roofs in areas such as Myrtle Springs and Fort Worth, Texas, leaving entire lawns covered and destroying a windshield in Yantis, Texas. The largest chunks of the day were reported in Junction, Texas, where photos of hailstones up to 3 inches in diameter were shared on social media.
