EF0 tornado, Pletcher to Bessie, 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

8:20 PM CDT (01:20 UTC)

Lifted

8:27 PM CDT (01:27 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Chilton County

Touchdown point

32.738, -86.768

Lift-off point

32.768, -86.806

Record number

1710071920-01

6 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 94 mph.

• Single large branch broken and covered the road.
• 25 yards wide. Not near as much damage as further north. Beginning of path

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

Nate strengthened into a Tropical Storm on the morning of Thursday, October 5th, just off the coast of Nicaragua. Nate moved inland across Nicaragua and Honduras through Friday morning October 6th. Nate then moved north-northwest over the warm waters of the northwestern Caribbean Sea, where it gradually intensified. Just after passing through the Yucatan Channel, Nate officially reached hurricane status during the early morning hours of Saturday, October 7th. Hurricane Nate raced toward the central Gulf Coast and made its first landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River Saturday evening, October 7th. A second landfall near Biloxi, MS, came later that evening. Nate continued to accelerate northeastward and weaken as it crossed into west Alabama. Nate was downgraded to a Tropical Depression near Birmingham, AL, on the morning of Sunday, October 8th. Nate produced gusty winds of 30-50 mph which downed numerous trees and power lines across central Alabama, and several weak tornadoes formed on its feeder bands. As the remnants of Nate tracked towards the New England States, a nearly stationary surface trough over southeast Alabama resulted in localized flash flooding in Chambers County on Monday, October 9th.

NWS meteorologists surveyed damage in southern Chilton County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF0 tornado. Damage was sporadic along its short path, and primarily consisted of twigs and branches of various size that were broken off of trees.

NWS meteorologists surveyed damage in western Chilton County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado. The tornado touched down in a wooded area just west of the intersection of County Road 36 and Alabama Highway 191, where it snapped several branches off of trees. From there, the tornado moved north-northwestward, and continued to cause damage to trees as it crossed County Road 204 and across a yard at the end of County Road 207. The tornado gained some strength as it crossed County Road 42, where it snapped and uprooted numerous trees, including one that fell onto a residence. From there the tornado weakened once again, causing damage to tree limbs and smaller branches as it crossed County Road 124 and County Road 120. It ultimately lifted near the intersection of County Road 119 and County Road 107, with just a few small branches down at that location.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:01 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:50 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), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:18 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.