Selma Recovering after two years?

SAVING SELMA: Two years since tornado destroyed one-third of city

On January 12, 2023, strong to severe thunderstorms swept across the U.S. Southeast, from Mississippi to Georgia, spawning numerous tornadoes. Central Alabama was particularly hard hit, where destructive storms destroyed homes and caused widespread power outages.

One of the twisters touched down in Dallas County, Alabama, as a strong EF2 tornado. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), this storm tore across the landscape for almost 23 miles (37 kilometers) with wind speeds that peaked at 130 miles per hour. It tracked northeast from near Orrville, continued through downtown Selma, and ended near Burnsville.

The tornado’s path of damage becomes apparent in this animation, which alternates between satellite images captured before and after the storm. The first image was acquired on January 6, 2023, with the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9. The post-storm image was acquired on January 14, 2023, with the OLI on Landsat 8.