EF1 tornado, River Bend to Blocton Jct, Alabama, August 31, 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

August 31, 2017

Touchdown

7:28 PM CDT (00:28 UTC)

Lifted

7:30 PM CDT (00:30 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bibb County

Touchdown point

33.101, -87.172

Lift-off point

33.107, -87.165

Record number

1708311828-01

59 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 95 mph.

• looking west. approx come from 220 deg
• looking east. healthy tree uprooted.
• roughly 300 degrees. trees snapped/uprooted
• roof detached tossed behind shed

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

The remnants of Hurricane Harvey tracked northeast across Louisiana and along the Mississippi River. Feeder bands on the east side of Harvey produced four tornadoes across central Alabama.

NWS meteorologists surveyed damage in northern Bibb County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado. The tornado spun up along a hunting road south of Hopewell Church Road, where a couple of trees were downed. It paralleled Hopewell Church Road and reached its greatest intensity near a pond. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted on both sides of the pond. The tornado dissipated north of the pond, prior to reaching Hopewell Church Road.

NWS meteorologists surveyed damage in northern Bibb County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF0 tornado. The tornado developed just south of Old Woodstock Road along the northern side of the Colonial Pipeline with light tree damage observed. The tornado briefly intensified as it crossed Old Woodstock Road, uprooting several trees. Another batch of uprooted trees was seen toward the northeast, as the tornado moved through a stand of trees. The circulation then quickly weakened roughly 1.5 miles south of the Tuscaloosa County line.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:55 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:15 UTC and running to 03:00 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 19:57 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.

Bessemer (EKY), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:30 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

15 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.