EF2 tornado, Forkville to Pleasant Hill, 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

8:06 PM CST (02:06 UTC)

Lifted

8:12 PM CST (02:12 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.2 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Winston County

Touchdown point

34.195, -87.470

Lift-off point

34.236, -87.447

Record number

1611292006-02

56 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 127 mph.

• Start point of Chicken Foot Rd EF-1 Tornado. Tree down, minor damage to garage.
• power lines down, tornado crossed Antioch Rd
• large tree down on structure. Approximate end point
• track continued into woods

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 northwest Winston County near Forkville and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-1 tornado, with maximum winds estimated near 105 mph.||The tornado touched down about 5 miles east northeast of Haleyville. At initial touch down along Chicken Foot Road, there were a few trees that were blown down and minor damage to a garage roof. The tornado continued northeastward where it snapped several power poles, one home suffered roof damage, and some garage doors were blown in. A metal pole and rafter barn was destroyed and the debris was scattered across a field. Toward the end of the path, several tree trunks were snapped off.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in eastern Winston County in the Ashridge Community and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-2 tornado, with maximum winds estimated near 125 mph.||The tornado touched down along County Road 55 just north of Macedonia Road. This location was about 4 miles northwest of Double Springs or 2 miles south of Ashridge. At the beginning point, one home lost a portion of its roof covering. The tornado moved north northeast and almost paralleled County Road 55. A chicken house sustained significant damage and one home suffered roof damage on County Road 3182. The tornado increased its intensity and width as it entered the Bankhead National Forest near Ashridge. Several homes and outbuildings sustained damage and numerous trees were snapped or uprooted. The EF-2 damage occurred just off County Road 55 south of Ashridge. Two mobile homes and one outbuilding were totally destroyed. Numerous power poles and trees were blown down. The tornado continued north northeast and crossed Alabama Highway 195, County Road 2 and eventually lifted near Jim Brown Road. Several structures sustained damage and many trees were snapped off on this final section of the tornado path.

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

38 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:28 UTC, 38 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:37 UTC and running to 02:50 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 Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:03 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.