April 24th, 2010 Cullman County Tornado

Cullman County (Phelan, Welti)

Summary: An EF-2 tornado first touched down on Highway 31, just south of the County Road 601 intersection.  The tornado damaged roofs to two businesses in the Phelan community.  The tornado then moved northeast and downed several power lines and snapped and uprooted over 100 trees including pine and oak trees. Minor roof damage was observed on a house on County Road 601 and a carport was destroyed on County Road 622 Loop.  Before the tornado crossed the Broglen River, over 20 pine trees were snapped.  Two chicken houses were destroyed and several trees were downed near County Road 747 in the Welti community.  Tin roof debris from the chicken houses was thrown over one mile along the tornado path.  The tornado finally lifted on County Road 643, but not before causing roof damage to a barn and knocking down several trees.

Radar Data
This National Weather Service radar loop between from 6:51pm through 7:19pm shows a rotating supercell thunderstorm moving across east central Cullman County.  The imagery (noted best by the velocity imagery on the left) shows a circulation couplet beginning south of Cullman and moving to the east-northeast.  This radar signature does not show the strong inbound and outbound velocities seen on other radar imagery due partly to the distance away from the Hytop radar.  Nevertheless, strong differential velocity/shear was present.  Click on the image below to observe the loop.

Damage Pictures

Damage to a chicken house in the Welti community.	Another photo of damage to the chicken house.
Roof damage to a business in the Phelan community.	Inside the business.