EF2 tornado, Pleasant Grove to Colbert Hgts, Alabama, November 29, 2016

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 29, 2016

Touchdown

7:05 PM CST (01:05 UTC)

Lifted

7:23 PM CST (01:23 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

10.9 miles (17.5 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

Counties

Franklin and Colbert counties

Touchdown point

34.541, -87.904

Lift-off point

34.627, -87.744

Record number

1611291905-01

30 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• 2 injured here with manufactured home destroyed.
• 2 injuries with this single wide manufacturing home that was heavily damaged with most walls missing.
• This tree damage occurred close to the damaged single wide home.
• Multiple snapped hardwood and softwood trees

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

A tornado outbreak occurred during the evening hours of the 29th into the early morning hours of the 30th. A very mild and unstable air mass was in place along with a strong southwesterly upper level jet. These ingredients combined with a cold front and pre-frontal trough sweeping from west to east across the area sparked scattered supercell thunderstorms during the evening, a few of which were tornadic. This was followed by a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) that occurred with the trough, which also was responsible for severe weather. Beneficial rainfall occurred with this system with 2-5 inches reported. Some of the rainfall fell fast enough to produce brief flash flooding in the Florence area during the evening.

A supercell crossed over northern Franklin County Alabama and a tornado developed and touched down near Lost Creek Road on the northeast side of the Cedar Creek Reservoir. When it touched down, a number of hardwood trees, softwood trees, and power poles were snapped and a well built single family home lost a significant amount of the roofing material and the one occupant of the home was injured when the tornado occurred. The home also shifted with cracks noted on the concrete under-girding of the home. This is where the tornado was at its strongest (EF-2). The tornado quickly moved northeast snapping 10-20 trees and power poles as it moved towards the Frankfort Community along County Road 88.

A tornado crossed into Colbert County from Franklin County. More softwood and hardwood trees were snapped causing damage to a single wide manufactured home and car shed on Jones Road. More softwood and hardwood trees were snapped as the tornado continued northeast across County Road 49. Then, as the tornado continued to move northeast multiple softwood and hardwood trees were snapped close to Underwood Mountain Road before striking a single wide manufactured home. The single wide manufactured home sustained damage consistent with EF-1 rating with destruction of roof and walls leaving floor and undercarriage in place. Two people within this home sustained injuries. Another single family dwelling next to this manufactured home sustained damage uplift of the roof damage while more snapped hardwood trees were noted just to the northeast of these houses. This is also where the tornado had the largest width of 100 yards. The tornado then lifted shortly after this damage occurred.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:50 UTC and running to 04:28 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:51 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Muscle Shoals Regional (MSL), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:05 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.