EF0 tornado, Summerdale, Alabama, June 21, 2017

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

June 21, 2017

Touchdown

3:02 PM CDT (20:02 UTC)

Lifted

3:03 PM CDT (20:03 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Baldwin County

Touchdown point

30.465, -87.676

Lift-off point

30.467, -87.676

Record number

1706211402-01

Tropical Storm Cindy first developed in the central Gulf of Mexico on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 20th and made landfall between Cameron, LA and Port Arthur, TX during the early morning hours of Thursday, June 22nd. Despite the center of the storm being far removed from the north central Gulf Coast, the effects of Cindy extended several hundred miles to the east of the center and impacted the local area starting late Tuesday and persisting through the end of the week.||The primary impact across southwest and south central Alabama was from heavy rain and flooding. The highest storm total observed was in Thomasville, AL which measured 11.37 of rain ending Friday night, June 23rd. Numerous locations across south central and southwest Alabama recorded 5 to 10 inches of rain. The heavy rain resulted in numerous instances of flash flooding and minor to moderate river flooding. ||Coastal flooding also impacted Mobile and Baldwin Counties, particularly in the typical low lying locations. Tidal gauges indicate the maximum inundation was around 3 feet MHHW in the north end of Mobile Bay. ||Four tornadoes occurred in southern Alabama during Cindy, 3 EF-0 and 1 EF-1. ||Two fatalities occurred, one due to high surf and one due to rip currents.

A public video captured a brief tornado touchdown in an open field just north of Engel Road and west of the Baldwin Beach Express.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:29 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:02 UTC and running to 23:51 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 19:56 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 Mobile radar (KMOB), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:02 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

8 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.