The Geneva Tornado & 5 Miracles Part 2 – Tall Trees at 45 degrees

📅 Date Written: 2026-02-10

Dear Reader,

As I sit here in my tiny-shed office with Vornado heater turning off and on every 5 minutes to try to maintain 68 degrees, and my timer set to 15 minutes, I’m wondering what I can tell you in just fifteen minutes. Perhaps I should just share what it was like to witness mild cyclic tornadic winds swirling things on my deck and then 15 minutes later watching in astonishment as what I at the time estimated as “about 120 mph winds” (given that having lived through 3 hurricanes I’m familiar with 80 mph winds and this was almost double an order of force and magnitude).

Also, as of late — as with probably much of you non-luddites — I’ve been integrating AI (artificial intelligence) more and more into my daily routine. One thing that AI is really good at (ChatGPT, Perplexity) is rephrasing raw text. The whole point of this exercise if for me to re-sharpen my own writing skills, so I’m leaving AI out if it as far as editing. I’ve always been a great proofreader, but for this #progressNotPerfection series, I’m not concerned as much about a typo here and there, but rather the point is to get the thoughts out and publish them.

So, enough with the preamble. The “Geneva Tornado” occurred Sunday, January 25, 2026 around 1:30 PM. It was preceeded by rain because our well pump had gone out earlier that morning and I set buckets out after church to try to catch the rain (The buckets got scrambled around after the first round of cyclonic winds spun).

According to Wikipedia, the tornado was part of a larger severe weather event: “Winter Storm Fern” and wikipedia confirms the Geneva Tornado occurred between 19:29 and 19:33 (UTC which equals 1:29 PM – 1:33 PM). That aligns with my experience. It wasn’t here too long, but it tried to do a lot of damage and as I mentioned in part 1 about 12 trees got knocked down, but nobody got hurt, praise God!

The most amazing part was as I watched out the back clear glass of our french doors that face south and lead to the timber frame deck, after excaping having a cedar tree fall on me, then torrential rains, then light rain and trying to capture it in buckets, then another round of cyclonic winds that made items on our front porch dance around like a parking-lot dust devil (non-destructive type, only moving things around in a circle, non-deadly — Maybe there’s a better, more accurate name for this phenomena? You can let me know in the comments)

Anyway, finally, out of the blue I probably heard the classic train sound as the wind went from 10mph-120mph in a single second, but our heartwood home is very well insulated, including for sound. No, what I remember most — I’ll never forget — was how for a count of no more than 4-10 seconds a 100+ MPH wind blew with such force, seemling straight-line from west to east, that tall coniferous trees (pines, I think) were forced to lean at between 45 and 90 degrees. Many trees fell in those few seconds. I observed at least 2 in addition to one I previously mentioned and on my survey walk aroud the property the next morning to survey the damage, I counted at least 7 downed trees.

This is an event that will go down in history as one of the strangest in Geneva, Alabama / Wiregrass Region history. Those who witnessed it, will never forget what they saw that day. And as for me and my house, we will always testify of God’s goodness and how he saved us and preserved us! God created a universe with laws (Isaac Newton taught us that) and one of the biggest spiritual laws is if you pay your tithe, the devil has no legal claim against you. Many including myself who understand this principle have claimed “tither’s rights” against destructive weather incidents and called upon the law of heaven and earth to save them. My and my house are living testimonies of such miraculous (I believe, angelic) intervention! Psalm 91 says he has given his angels the responsibility to keep his believers safe, and he did not fail. It is because of God’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed. He gives his children good gifts and keeps us safe under his wings. Amen.

Did you live through the Geneva Tornado? Was your experience different or similar? Let’s have a good conversation in the comments!

Addendum:

Here some official details about the tornado from the National Weather Service’s Alabama Tornado Database

(👀 Look for the tornado photos in Part 3)

References:

Ryan Dugger’s Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=927937902919095&set=pcb.927969412915944