EF1 tornado, Middle Brooks Xrds to Waverly, Alabama, November 30, 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 30, 2016

Touchdown

12:35 PM CST (18:35 UTC)

Lifted

12:40 PM CST (18:40 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.2 miles (5.2 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Lee and Chambers counties

Touchdown point

32.706, -85.559

Lift-off point

32.735, -85.516

Record number

1611301235-01

8 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 90 mph.

• Start Point of Lablockee EF-1 Tornado - November 30, 2016.

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 extreme northern Lee County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-1 tornado, with maximum winds estimated near 90 mph.||The first damage surveyed was along Lee Road 88 just southwest of US Highway 280 near the town of Waverly. The tornado then traveled northeast and crossed Lee Road 453 where it caused minor structure damage and several trees were either snapped or uprooted. The tornado then crossed US Highway 280 and entered southern Chambers County about one mile west of Highway 147.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in extreme northern Lee County and extreme southern Chambers County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-1 tornado, with maximum winds estimated near 90 mph.||This tornado entered southern Chambers County from Lee County about one mile west of Highway 147. The tornado traveled northeast and crossed County Road 21. Numerous hardwood and softwood trees were uprooted and snapped near County Road 21. The tornado lifted just north of County Road 21.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:06 UTC and running to 20:07 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:12 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.

Auburn-Opelika Apt (AUO), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 31 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:33 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

16 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.