Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2017
EF0 tornado, Whatley, Alabama, June 21, 2017
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Clarke County on June 21, 2017, touching down at 8:35 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- June 21, 2017
- Touchdown
- 8:35 PM CDT (01:35 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:36 PM CDT (01:36 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $25,000
- County
- Clarke County
- Touchdown point
- 31.650, -87.656
- Lift-off point
- 31.652, -87.657
- Record number
- 1706211935-01
What the Weather Service recorded
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 brief EF-0 tornado touched down on a private hunting cap just west of Amityville Road. The tornado damaged a 100 to 150 pine trees along its short path.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:51 UTC and running to 07:59 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15:14 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | MOB |
| 17:05 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | MOB |
| 17:35 UTC | 17:30 UTC | Flood Warning | MOB |
| 20:46 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | MOB |
| 22:51 UTC | 04:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | MOB |
| 23:51 UTC | 07:59 UTC | Tornado Watch | MOB |
| 07:59 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | MOB |
| 15:14 UTC | 20:04 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | MOB |
| 15:51 UTC | 20:06 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | MOB |
| 18:08 UTC | 02:18 UTC | Tornado Watch | MOB |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:35 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 radar
The Mobile radar (KMOB), 121 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:35 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:50 UTC | NON-TSTM WND DMG | 7 E Coffeeville | Clarke, AL | TREES DOWN AND ROAD BLOCKED ALONG HWY 154 NEAR LONDON RD. TREES DOWN ON HWY 84 NEAR SUNSET RD. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 21, 2017
8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 21 | 6:18 AM CDT | EF0 | Okaloosa, FL | 2.5 | 75 | $40,000 | ||
| June 21 | 8:25 AM CDT | EF0 | Harrison, MS | 4.2 | 75 | |||
| June 21 | 12:55 PM CDT | EF0 | Saint John the Baptist Parish, LA | 1.9 | 50 | |||
| June 21 | 3:02 PM CDT | EF0 | Baldwin, AL | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 21 | 3:08 PM CDT | EF0 | Escambia, AL | 0.8 | 25 | |||
| June 21 | 6:24 PM CDT | EF0 | Wilkin, MN | 0.5 | 75 | |||
| June 21 | 6:39 PM CDT | EF0 | Wilkin, MN | 1.3 | 100 | |||
| June 21 | 6:57 PM CDT | EF1 | Covington, AL | 4.8 | 75 | $50,000 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.