EF2 tornado, Notasulga to Tax, Alabama, November 16, 2011

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF2

Date

November 16, 2011

Touchdown

11:52 AM CST (17:52 UTC)

Lifted

1:12 PM CST (19:12 UTC)

On the ground

80 minutes

Path length

61.5 miles (99.0 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

Property damage

$9.5 million

Counties

Macon, Lee, Harris and Talbot counties

Touchdown point

32.537, -85.657

Lift-off point

32.830, -84.660

Record number

1111161152-03

6 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX and NWS FFC, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• End point of the Notasulga-Auburn EF-1 Tornado at the CWA Line.
• Animal shelter with cinder block walls.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Several waves of thunderstorms affected Central Alabama on Wednesday, November 16. The airmass ahead of a slow-moving, strong cold front became increasingly moist and unstable during the early morning hours. Rotating supercells within several broken lines of thunderstorms began producing damage just after sunrise in west Central Alabama. Isolated damage continued across the southern portion of the area through the early afternoon. In addition to damage across portions of Alabama, this storm system produced damage from Eastern Texas to the Atlantic Coast.

A sharp and deep negatively tilted full-latitude upper trough was sweeping through the eastern half of the United States. An unseasonably warm, moist air mass was present in advance of the front, as was the case with many events during the 2011 - 2012 winter season. In addition, a strong low-level jet contributed highly to a high shear/high helicity environment and the development of rotating cells within a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) that tracked from west central to east central Georgia during the afternoon. An EF2 tornado tracked from Lee county in east central Alabama into Harris county in west central Georgia. In addition, there were several reports of quarter-sized hail and thunderstorm wind damage, primarily across central Georgia during this event.

A tornado touched down in northeast Macon County south of Notasulga, east of County Road 81, along County Road 59. The tornado moved to the northeast, causing extensive tree damage. Approximately a dozen mobile homes sustained damage along County Road 54, before the tornado crossed into Lee County, south of Hunter Road.

A tornado initially touched down in Macon County Alabama and crossed into Lee County approximately 1 mile southwest of Lee Road 3. It continued its northeastward path causing extensive tree damage across western Lee County. Dozens of houses and mobile homes on the western side of Auburn were heavily damaged due to falling trees. Several residences were destroyed. One female and one child were injured when trees fell on a mobile home. Significant damage was also noted in the Terrace Acres neighborhood, where homes were heavily damaged from falling trees. The tornado crossed the southern edge of Auburn University's campus and caused damage to the baseball facilities at Auburn High School and nearby homes. The tornado crossed interstate 85 at US highway 280 and continued moving to the northeast toward Lake Harding. Along the lake, extensive tree damage and damage to numerous homes and boathouses occurred. Several residences were destroyed or sustained complete roof loss. The tornado continued into Harris County Georgia (See November Storm Data from WFO Peachtree City).

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that an EF2 tornado caused extensive damage across Harris county. The tornado first touched down as an EF1 in Macon county, Alabama before moving east into Lee county, Alabama and then into Harris county, Georgia. The tornado had already caused considerable damage to the town of Auburn, Alabama as an EF1 before it continued into Harris county, Georgia. As the tornado approached the county seat of Hamilton, it strengthened to an EF2. The tornado entered Harris county from Alabama at the north end of Lake Harding and tracked across the central part of the county, then moved into extreme northwest Talbot county before lifting, approximately two miles east-northeast of the town of Shiloh on the Harris/Talbot county line. The tornado had already carved out a path over 33 miles in length across eastern Alabama before it moved into Georgia. Within Harris county, the tornado path length was approximately 26 miles. The maximum path width was determined to be 1/2 mile with maximum winds of 125 mph. The tornado caused considerable damage across Harris county, especially around the county seat of Hamilton. Two homes were completely destroyed, with 68 other structures suffering minor to moderate damage, including 22 county buildings. County buildings damaged included the Harris County School Complex, the Harris County 911 Center, the Harris County Animal Shelter, and the agricultural center. One of the structures heavily damaged was a mobile home, where a man and his wife sustained minor injuries. Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted along the path of the tornado.||[11/16/11: Tornado #1, County #1-2, EF2, Harris-Talbot, 2011:026].

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that the EF1 to EF2 tornado, that first touched down in Macon county Alabama and tracked across all of Harris county, continued into extreme northwest Talbot county before lifting. The tornado tracked on the ground over 33 miles within Alabama, 26 miles within Harris county, and approximately two miles within Talbot county for a total path length of nearly 61 miles. The tornado decreased to an EF1 before it entered Talbot county and the path width decreased to less than 1/2 mile. Damage within Talbot county was confined to several downed trees and power lines in the far northwest part of the county along Old Shiloh Road.||[11/16/11: Tornado #1, County #2-2, EF2, Harris-Talbot, 2011:026].

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

Auburn-Opelika Apt (AUO), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.