Tornado on the Pinhoti?

[Chris]

We were doing trail work between Blue Mountain Shelter and the CCC road going north and near the northern end we came to a hill and many of the trees had been blown down. We had 5 or 6 blowdowns and in that short area that took a little over and hour to cut through. All the blowdowns were fresh and we had some storms come through the day before so I'm thinking the Pinhoti might have gotten hit by a tornado. What do ya'll think?

[Joshua Szulecki]

While it certainly is possible, chances are better that it was just some other form of high winds. High winds, microbursts, and other high wind sources are all fairly destructive. The best way to find out would be to check the local newspapers for any record of tornado damage, and failing that, contact the local NWS office and see if they know anything about it.

Were the downed trees still alive when they fell?

[Lostsheep]

I'm going to agree w/ Joshua on that one. I don't think it was a Tornado, b/c we didn't have any in that area as of late (that I know of). I do know we had some pretty nasty winds and rains though.

It could have been just straightlined winds or any of those side effects of the bad storms.

[Chris]

They were still alive as far as we could tell.

We were up at Cheaha for about 10 days and during the AHTS conference I was actually caught outside when hail started coming down. It was nice Sunday and then Monday the wind picked up. So it was an interesting week in terms of weather.

The thing that was suprising about the trees is that all those blowdowns were concetrated on one area. The hillside was really torn apart. I'm thinking it was a microburst maybe because while the area was farily large it didn't cut a long path like a tornado would've.

[MoBill122]

 I hiked through that area of trees and I'd have to say it was strong straight wind burst. All the trees fell in the same direction, not twisted and thrown about like a tornado would have done. That was on March 19th, and I had my wife email the ATHS about the trees.
 There was another place just south of the food plot at Pine Glen Campground in Choccolocco Management Area, but those trees were only 8-10" diameter, and easier to get around.
 Leaving Burns Trailhead, the trail to Dugger Mtn had a huge mess , of what again appears to be straight wind bursts, knocking perhaps 30-40 trees across the trail.  This will take a crew to clear out, or perhaps re-routing the trail a bit lower on the mountain side.  Big trees all stacked together in the trail, are a real pain to crawl over with a loaded backpack. 
 Dugger Mtn kicked my butt that day, I came home with sore ankles, sore knees, sore shoulders.... besides the fact I had a bad cold, running sinuses, or bronchisis or something.
 Anyway... I finished 110 miles of Pinhoti, will go back when over this crud I have now.

MoBill