EF1 tornado, Almeria to Mt Hillard, Alabama, January 2, 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

January 2, 2017

Touchdown

4:24 PM CST (22:24 UTC)

Lifted

4:32 PM CST (22:32 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

3.4 miles (5.5 km)

Path width

485 yards (443 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Bullock County

Touchdown point

32.031, -85.874

Lift-off point

32.067, -85.835

Record number

1701021624-01

11 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 88 mph.

• Uprooted trees on soggy hillside.

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

A warm front lifted northward during the morning hours on January 2nd. Cold temperatures aloft created steep mid level lapse rates and several of the storms produced hail, mostly below 1 inch. During the afternoon, a low level jet developed across south Alabama increasing the instability across region. Precipitable water values also increased to above 1.5 inches, setting the stage for heavy rainfall and flash flooding.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southwest Bullock County just west of Clayton determined that the damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum winds estimated near 90 mph. The tornado touched down along CR 13, between CR 7 and Rabbit Rd, and then traveled northeast. The majority of the damage was around Hooks Crossroads, the intersection of CR 14 and CR 15, where numerous trees were snapped or uprooted and one camper was overturned. A concentrated area of tree damage was noted in a wooded area between CR 15 and East Creek. The tornado lifted just north of East Creek. Special thanks to Bullock County Emergency Management Agency for their help in conducting the survey.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:11 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:59 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:46 UTC and running to 00:41 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:04 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.

Troy Municipal (TOI), 26 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), 55 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:27 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

38 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.