See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy ALEX HAMMER, US MEDIA CORRESPONDENT Updated: 21:03 BST, 27 May 2026
Frightening footage shows the moment an Alabama news station was struck by a tornado while live on air.Jordan Ambrose, WDHN's chief meteorologist, described the development as the dramatic event was unfolding on Monday night.'Looks like we've heard glass break. If we're on air, if we can cut it onto live TV: A tornado has just gone through the station here at WDHN,' he told viewers in Dothan and Webb.Security footage shows the moment a WDHN staffer was seen in the station's lobby fleeing from a glass door as it began to break from winds brought by the storm.The WDNH team reported on the development the next day, with Morning anchor Joseph Sims leading the coverage.Several uprooted trees were seen outside the property as the segment began.'What you're seeing right now is the debris behind me from this storm hitting our station here at WDHN,' Sims said as a camera panned to the station’s roof and awning completely ripped apart.'It was ripped up from the violent winds thrown over the building.' Jordan Ambrose, WDHN's chief meteorologist, reported on the tornado as it hit the Alabama station's headquarters on Monday night The tornado first touched down near Webb around Alabama Highway 52 near the WDHN studios at around 7.30pm At least one home in the area was completely destroyed, local police said earlier this weekA 'WDHN' sign was also severely damaged, footage showed. The tornado first touched down near Webb and the WDHN studios at around 7.30pm.It resurfaced again a few miles north before causing even heavier damage, Henry County Sheriff Eric Blankenship told rival Dothan station WTVY on Monday night.At least one home in the area was completely destroyed, Blankenship said. No one was inside at the time.Roughly 2,000 Alabamans were left without power because of the weather, outage maps cited by WTVY showed.The tornado was one of at least six to hit the state over the long weekend. A cold front that moved through Alabama on Friday was the likely cause. It brought severe thunderstorms and estimated peak winds of 107mph.Ambrose, after days of reporting on the extreme weather, joined his WDHN costar Camila Figueroa on Tuesday to speak about the scare.Asked what the experience was like, he admitted it 'was slightly nerve-wracking.' 'I'm not gonna lie,' he told Figueroa. 'Even though a lot of people said I was calm. It's all about, what I call, compartmentalizing. Another station staffer was seen fleeing the facility's front door just as the tornado struck The tornado left multiple trees uprooted in the station's parking lot, footage showed The WDHN team reported on the damage again a day later. The station’s roof and awning had been ripped apart'And realizing that if I'm nervous or sound nervous, everybody else is going to be nervous. 'So the first thing that I thought is, "I hear a lot of noise. Is everybody else safe around the station?"'And I heard people scattering to their safe place, and I heard the glass break.'Once that happened, I was like, ok, this is a very serious situation - but how do I communicate this effectively? Where everybody can hear me?' Ambrose continued. He recalled how he 'just took deep breath' and put himself 'in a situation that I can handle.' The Daily Mail understands that no one at WDHN was injured during the incident.The Mail approached WDHN's parent company, Nexstar Media Group, for comment.
