EF3 tornado, Danville to Basham, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

November 29, 2016

Touchdown

8:40 PM CST (02:40 UTC)

Lifted

8:48 PM CST (02:48 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

6.2 miles (10.0 km)

Path width

175 yards (160 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Morgan County

Touchdown point

34.441, -87.091

Lift-off point

34.504, -87.015

Record number

1611292040-01

55 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 140 mph.

• roof completely gone, wall collapsed on garage side
• debris from collapsed wall/residence
• Chicken house (large metal building) destroyed. Owner of property prohibited NWS & EMA from taking pictures. Picture of ground was taken for track reference.
• Steel beams from motorcycle repair shop blown downstream app. 300-400 yards into this house.

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.

The tornado first touched down along Danville Road just east of the Lawrence County line. In this area, trees were snapped and uprooted. Minor damage was noted to a shed here. The tornado then moved northeast and strengthened as it crossed the intersection of Maddox Road and Johnson Chapel Road. Here hardwood trees were snapped near the base and a home suffered significant roof and structural damage.||Along northwest Maddox Road several homes sustained significant structural damage. One home had the roof and a large section of the wall blown out. The residents of the home rode the storm out safely in the interior most hallway. Several power poles were snapped at the base. Damage here was consistent with very high end EF-2 damage.||The tornado once again crossed Danville Road causing structural damage to several buildings including a multi-story home. Significant roof uplift was noted in this location. A large industrial garage in this area was also destroyed. A convenience store nearby suffered damage, and the owner's family received warning alerts and took shelter in an interior hallway to ride out the storm.||The tornado then approached Neel School Road causing significant damage in and around the Neel Volunteer Fire Department. The roof was nearly completely taken off the fire department and large metal trusses were bent at this facility. A nearby large building was obliterated and other well built structure had its roof and supports taken off.||As the tornado moved northeast, it cross Singleton Road impacting more structures. Several homes sustained structural damage, mainly roof damage. One very large building was completely destroyed with another sustaining near collapse. The tornado then reached its maximum intensity as it crossed Boys Ranch Road on the eastern edge of Bogar Loop.||Here a home suffered complete roof loss and partial wall collapse. An anchored mobile home was obliterated with the contents thrown over 100 yards. A motor cycle repair shop that included an anchor bolted large shop building was nearly wiped clean with motorcycles thrown or rolled large distances. An SUV parked here was thrown and then rolled about 75 yards. Damage here was consistent with lower end EF-3 damage at 140 mph.||The tornado then crossed mostly rugged, hilly and rural terrain downing trees as it began to slowly wind down in intensity. The tornado then once again crossed Danville Road north of McCleskey producing widespread tree damage. Here very large hardwood trees were snapped near the based and uprooted. A home here sustained damage to the roof and also damage due to falling trees. A large shed/outbuilding here was destroyed. As the tornado crossed Herring Road it produced damage to a roof on a conventional home and also significant roof and structural damage to|a mobile home. On the northeast side of Herring Road minor tree damage was noted as the tornado finally lifted.

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 00:48 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.

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:40 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.