Severe weather, snow strike Shoals

The old saying goes “if you don’t like the weather in Alabama, wait 5 minutes.”

For those that were not fans of the severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings that swept across The Shoals late on March 15, at least you didn’t wake up to snow. Unless you wanted snow, anyway.

Around 9:45 p.m. on March 15 the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Colbert and Lauderdale counties.

The main culprit was a potential tornado passing near Cherokee.

That warning was canceled at 10:15 p.m., but a possible tornado hit in the area of Lexington in Lauderdale County farther down the path.

Damage was reported at Lexington High School, where some trees were uprooted and a set of bleachers was seemingly picked up and carried across two sports fields before crashing back to earth.

The National Weather Service office in Huntsville announced the next morning that a survey team was being sent to that area to assess the damage and to determine if a tornado did indeed touch down.

A day later the service confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down for 14 miles near Lexington before moving into Tennessee.

Thousands of residents were without power at some point during the event, with over 1,000 still out as of 11 a.m. on March 16.

In a complete twist in the weather, counties like Fayette, Madison, Marion, Pickens, Walker and Winston had residents flood social media with pictures and video of significant snowfall on the other side of the severe weather, though no travel issues were expected ahead of the event.

The snow stuck on elevated and grassy surfaces in some places

The Shoals did see some sleet and flurries, though there was no accumulation.

The temperature changed around 40 degrees from the high on March 15 to the low the next morning, with a high of 77 and a low of 36 reported for the area.