EF1 tornado, Red Ore to Thomas Jct, Alabama, June 22, 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

June 22, 2017

Touchdown

12:21 PM CDT (17:21 UTC)

Lifted

12:38 PM CDT (17:38 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

8.3 miles (13.3 km)

Path width

255 yards (233 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

33.428, -86.940

Lift-off point

33.532, -86.867

Record number

1706221121-01

111 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 110 mph.

• A close inspection of this structure revealed that there were multiple windy entry points (3 bay doors on the primary building, plus 3 additional bay doors on an adjacent work space) that allowed for tornadic winds to lift and shift the entire roof structure, which then resulted in partial wall collapse. This damage was determined to be of EF-1 tornado intensity.
• Despite near-complete destruction of this structure, a close inspection of wall-to-foundation fastening and overall framing suggests EF-1 caliber damage.
• multiple uprooted. mayhaps small corridor of EF-1.
• Several homes with shingle damage; several trees uprooted. Possible EF-1 area.

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

As Tropical Cyclone Cindy moved onshore along the Texas and Louisiana state line, feeder bands on the east side of Cindy developed over central Alabama. The feeder bands produced several modes of severe weather, including tornadoes, straight line winds, and flash flooding.

NWS Meteorologists surveyed damage in western Jefferson County and found that the damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 110 mph. There were three separate notable increases in damage severity and/or density, likely indicating that the funnel had a skipping/cycling characteristic as it swayed from less to more intense.||The tornado touched down along 5th Street North, between Highway 11 and Avenue A, where damage ranged from broken large limbs to uprooted and snapped trees. The tornado then traveled northeast with a long swath of damage centered along a track generally between Interstate 20/59 and Highway 11. Aside from continued uprooting of trees and downing of limbs, the first notable damage occurred just west of Western Hills Mall, where there was hefty damage to an Express Oil Change, Alabama ABC store, and mini strip mall, along Dr. M.L.K. Boulevard. Damage at this location was likely the result of a short-lived, concentrated vortex, with a track around 300 yards in length and EF1 intensity. Beyond this point, damage fell into EF0 range.||The tornado continued knocking down trees as it moved northeast, with some trees falling onto homes, resulting in severe roof damage. Tornadic winds also caused minor to moderate roof damage ranging from missing shingles to sections of roof damaged or blown off, especially in neighborhoods adjacent to Miles College (to the south and northeast). Given a noticeable increase in damage density, it is possible that the tornado briefly intensified in this area, over the course of roughly a 700 yard path. While there was an obvious increase in the amount of uprooted trees, there was a large contribution from shallow root systems and especially saturated soil conditions; thus, given a lack of notable wind-driven damage to homes (which held in EF0, characteristic of shingle and roof trim damage), the overall damage pattern did not tip the scale for a small corridor of EF1 rating.||Next, the tornado neared and crossed Interstate 20/59 where the extent of damage backed off, though some minor structural damage done to the Tire Tech car bay, and Freeway Honda. Windows were also blown out of a few cars at the Honda dealership. An increase in the number of uprooted trees was again observed surrounding Tuxedo Park on the north side of Interstate 20/59, along with roof damage to a few homes. Tornado damage became very sporadic and increasingly less significant as the tornado neared Bankhead Highway, dissipating near the CSX Transportation railways adjacent to Pratt Highway.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 16:43 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 Birmingham radar (KBMX), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:23 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

2 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.