EF1 tornado, Vernon Lamar Co Arpt to Beaverton, 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 mphthis tornado

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

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   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

EF1

Date

November 29, 2016

Touchdown

11:40 PM CST (05:40 UTC)

Lifted

11:53 PM CST (05:53 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

9.7 miles (15.6 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lamar County

Touchdown point

33.825, -88.162

Lift-off point

33.886, -88.011

Record number

1611292340-01

47 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• numerous hardwoods and pines uprooted and snapped
• Much more tree damage here than the point farther south. This is probably closer to the center line.
• Large branch fell onto a house. Second storm.
• very light damage. apparent start of second storm.

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

A warm front moved northward during the day on Tuesday, November 29th, and surface temperatures climbed into the 70s across north Alabama. Low level shear and storm relative helicity increased over west Alabama Tuesday evening and discrete supercells developed over west Alabama.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Central Lamar County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-1 tornado, with maximum winds estimated near 105 mph.||The tornado touched down about 3 miles west southwest of the Lamar County Airport, near the intersection of Buck Jackson Road and Morris Road. There were several trees with large branches removed and a few trees that were snapped off. The tornado moved northeastward and crossed County Road 25 and Country Club Road. Several trees were snapped or uprooted and a few mobile homes suffered minor damage. The tornado then hit the Lamar County Airport at US Highway 17. Two hangers were destroyed, three planes were destroyed, several outbuildings were destroyed, one restaurant sustained roof damage, several mobile homes sustained minor damage and one home was destroyed. The tornado continued northeastward and produced more tree damage and minor mobile home damage on Pitts Road and Bluebird Road. Additional damage was located on Taylor Springs Road where several trees were uprooted and snapped off, a few homes sustained roof damage, and a few mobile homes were damaged. The tornado continued to snap off trees until it lifted near the intersection of County Road 49 and Garrison Road.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:35 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:01 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:50 UTC and running to 08:56 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 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.

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 23 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:39 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.