Tornadoes of 2021

This page is also very out of date and we have numerous tornado events planned to be added in the next few days

Fultondale Tornado - 25/01/2021

On the 25th of January, we had our first significant tornado event of 2021. The tornado struck at late night, with the storm forming along an approaching cold front, in a sheared and unstable environment. 

The Birmingham hodograph from a couple of hours before the event shows that there was good low level shear (shown by the curve and loop in the 0-3km section) and helicity. This, combined with more than expected surface heating, allowed for the storm to develop and intensify. 

You can see a very prominent velocity couplet, with a CC dropout showing where the tornado picked up debris. There was a BWER on radar imagery as the tornado was occuring as well. The tornado was rated 150mph, and tracked for 9 miles, producing some pretty severe damage, including destroying homes and debarking trees.