EF1 tornado, Garters Hill to Mitchell, Alabama, April 27, 2017

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

April 27, 2017

Touchdown

9:03 AM CDT (14:03 UTC)

Lifted

9:14 AM CDT (14:14 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

5.6 miles (9.0 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Montgomery and Bullock counties

Touchdown point

32.182, -86.071

Lift-off point

32.233, -85.997

Record number

1704270803-01

26 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR and 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.

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

A pre-frontal trough moved into Central Alabama on Tuesday night, April 26th. This boundary slowly pushed southward and was accompanied by some showers and thunderstorms. The east to west boundary drifted into south central Alabama on the morning of April 27th. The combination of shear, lift along the boundary, increased low level moisture and instability produced by insolation was just enough to spin up a few weak tornadoes.

NWS Meteorologists surveyed damage in far eastern Montgomery county and determined the damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. The tornado touched down about 2 miles NW of the Matthews Community, just north of US Highway 82. The first damage was located on Perry Lane and on Hayneville Ridge Road. A few trees were snapped off and some other tree damage was noted. The tornado traveled northeastward and knocked a few more trees down along Old Pike Road. The strongest and most concentrated damage occurred as the tornado approached the Bullock County Line. Numerous trees were snapped off around Stowers Road and along the remained of the damage path. A few homes sustained minor roof damage and one outbuilding had its roof removed. The tornado crossed into Bullock County just south of the intersection of Stowers Road and County Road 37.

NWS Meteorologists surveyed damage in far western Bullock County and determined the damage was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. |This tornado began in far eastern Montgomery County and crossed into Bullock County just south of the intersection of Stowers Road and County Road 37. The tornado lifted near County Road 37.

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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:55 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 Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 43 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:00 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 2017 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.