EF2 tornado, Holly Pond to Ruth, 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 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

August 31, 2017

Touchdown

8:58 PM CDT (01:58 UTC)

Lifted

9:19 PM CDT (02:19 UTC)

On the ground

21 minutes

Path length

13.6 miles (21.9 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Cullman and Marshall counties

Touchdown point

34.152, -86.606

Lift-off point

34.346, -86.560

Record number

1708311958-01

23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS HUN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• chicken house destroyed off FM 1732
• chicken houses off fm 1732
• barn next to chicken houses off cr 1732
• collapse of 10 chicken houses off cr 1732

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

A quasi-linear convective systeam (QLCS) band of showers and thunderstorms swept northeast through north Alabama during the mid to late evening hours. This band was associated with Tropical Depression Harvey which was tracking into southwest and middle Tennessee. One of the thunderstorms along the line produced a tornado. The tornado produced up to EF-2 damage and tracked from near Holly Pond to Joppa Alabama.

A tornado developed just south of Holly Pond, Alabama near the intersection of Highway 91 and CR 695 where a couple of trees were uprooted. As the tornado moved northeast it crossed Highway 278 where more trees were snapped and uprooted, and then struck 10 chicken houses. It destroyed nearly all of the chicken houses producing damage consistent with a low end EF-2. Metal roofing from these chicken houses was spread across a large area several hundred yards in width. Additional roof shingle damage |also occurred to a family residence along with several snapped and uprooted trees just to the northeast of these chicken houses along CR 1728. ||As the tornado continued to move northeast more trees were snapped and uprooted before 3 more chicken houses were destroyed on CR 1716. ||After proceeding northeast a few miles the tornado strengthened to its maximum intensity snapping and destroying multiple trees and power poles near the intersection of Red Hill Road and CR 1810. ||More trees were uprooted and power lines downed further northeast on Harris Road just west of Joppa.

A tornado continued its path from just west of Joppa into Marshall County. The tornado uprooted and snapped a few more trees before dissipating near the intersection of Mat Morrow Road and Midfield Road.

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.

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 00:58 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.

Cullman (CMD), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northeast Alabama radar (KHTX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:58 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.