EF0 tornado, Orange Beach, Alabama, October 7, 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

October 7, 2017

Touchdown

6:34 PM CDT (23:34 UTC)

Lifted

6:35 PM CDT (23:35 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

$5,000

County

Baldwin County

Touchdown point

30.293, -87.574

Lift-off point

30.294, -87.576

Record number

1710071734-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MOB, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0.

• Beginning point of brief EF0 tornado

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

Hurricane Nate quickly moved north northwest out of the northwest Caribbean Sea and across the Gulf of Mexico, making landfall near Biloxi, MS just after midnight on October 8th as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum winds of 85 mph. Nate quickly weakened as it moved inland across inland southeast Mississippi and southwest Alabama and was downgraded to a tropical depression over central Alabama by 10am CDT on October 8th.||The most significant damage produced by Nate was a substantial storm surge, particularly in the Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay. The highest surge values were observed in Mobile County, AL where peak surge inundation was generally 4 to 6 feet based on official tide gauges. However, an NWS Mobile storm survey indicated a peak surge inundation of 6 to 8 feet along the immediate coastal areas of Bayou La Batre and Coden. Similar inundation levels occurred on the west end of Dauphin Island. 3 to 6 feet of inundation occurred in Baldwin County, with the highest surge occurring along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay and points further north in the Mobile River Delta. Approximately 25 homes on the west end of Dauphin Island were significantly flooded by the surge waters. Several other homes experienced minor damage from the surge. Several homes in the Bayou La Batre, Coden, and the Dog River area of Mobile County experienced 2 to 3 feet of flooding inside the structures due to the surge. Hundreds of piers were damaged or destroyed n Mobile and Baldwin Counties. Some coastal roads were also closed due to surge, including the US Highway 90 Causeway and Water Street in Downtown Mobile. The surge and large breaking waves also resulted in significant beach erosion along the gulf facing beaches. 6 feet of sand was deposited on a 3 mile stretch of Bienville Blvd on the west end of Dauphin Island. ||Winds gusts of 50+ mph were observed in coastal areas with a the highest wind gust of 66 mph recorded at the Mobile Regional Airport just after 2am on October 8th. The winds resulted mainly in scattered power outages and downed trees. Gusty winds did spread further inland into southwest and south central Alabama with isolated to scattered power outages and downed trees reported. ||The fast movement of Nate resulted in limited, if any, impacts from flooding. 3 to 6 inches of rain was reported across southwest and south central Alabama, with the highest totals occurring in Mobile and Baldwin Counties. ||Four EF-0 tornadoes were reported in southwest and south central Alabama: one in Mobile County, two in Baldwin County, and one in Butler County.||2 rip current fatalities occurred on October 9th in Fort Morgan due to continued high surf and widespread rip currents left in the wake of the hurricane.||Based on available information from public and individual assistance reports, total damage from Hurricane Nate in southwest Alabama is roughly estimated at just over $21 million, with the vast majority of the damage resulting from surge and major beach erosion in Mobile and Baldwin Counties.

A brief EF-0 tornado touched down in Orange Beach Waterfront Park and produced some tree damage.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS MOB issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:17 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 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 19:58 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), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:36 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

10 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.