EF2 tornado, Reform to Hubertville, 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

3:40 PM CDT (20:40 UTC)

Lifted

4:26 PM CDT (21:26 UTC)

On the ground

46 minutes

Path length

31.2 miles (50.3 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

6

Counties

Pickens, Lamar and Fayette counties

Touchdown point

33.379, -88.034

Lift-off point

33.790, -87.813

Record number

1708311440-01

119 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 121 mph.

• Very isolated trees snapped, but doesn't need EF-1 rating.
• No fastening to foundation on any wall, so did not use "destruction of engineered or well-built home."
• Cars flipped; severe damage to side and roof of home (some possibly due to falling tree, however).
• Entire field of snapped trees.

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 Pickens County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF2 tornado. The tornado touched down at 7th Ave SW in the town of Reform. The tornado tracked northeast crossing Highway 82 and into residential areas where the worst damage occurred. Several single family wood framed homes and a mobile home were destroyed. One wood framed home was completely swept off its foundation. Several vehicles were also overturned. Four people, including an infant, were in the house that was swept off its foundation. They only suffered minor injuries. The tornado continued northeast and crossed near the intersection of County Road 25 and 15th Ave NW where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. It then crossed Highway 17 about one mile south of County Road 8 where several trees were snapped and a house lost part of its roof. The tornado paralleled Highway 17 for several miles and did extensive tree and power line damage in the community of Palmetto. A fire station was also heavily damaged in Palmetto. From Palmetto, it traveled along County Road 59 where is snapped and uprooted trees, then it crossed into extreme southeast Lamar County.

NWS meteorologists surveyed damage in western Fayette County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado. The tornado moved out of extreme southeast Lamar County and continued northeast across the western portions of Fayette County, with numerous trees snapped and uprooted. Just before the tornado crossed Highway 96, it produced extensive tree damage at the Fayette Country Club Golf Course. It continued northeast crossing County Road 18 and Wilkinson Road, and then to County Road 85 near Earl Housh Road. It paralleled County Road 85 for several miles, producing tree damage. It finally lifted about one mile southwest of the intersection of Highway 43 and Housh Chapel Road.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:12 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:15 UTC and running to 00:40 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.

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:43 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.