EF1 tornado, Minooka to Mostellers, Alabama, December 29, 2021

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

December 29, 2021

Touchdown

10:01 PM CST (04:01 UTC)

Lifted

10:19 PM CST (04:19 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

10.9 miles (17.6 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Chilton and Shelby counties

Touchdown point

33.044, -86.775

Lift-off point

33.049, -86.588

Record number

2112292201-01

27 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.

• 3 structures damaged. 1 home damaged.
• Several hardwood and softwood snapped and uprooted. Most snapped 10-15ft. Not nearly all trees.
• 2 outbuildings destroyed. A few trees snapped and uprooted. A carport was shifted off foundation.
• Numerous trees snapped and uprooted. Far left of path

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

A line of storms with embedded supercells developed south of an outflow boundary ahead of a slow-moving cold front, producing damaging winds and several tornadoes across the northern portions of central Alabama during the evening hours on December 29th. The surface boundary shifted into the southern counties of central Alabama on December 30th. The low level shear was not favorable for tornadoes, but the storms were robust enough to produce damaging winds and large hail.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northern Chilton County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum winds near 110 mph. The tornado touched down just west of County Road 33, a few miles south of the Chilton and Shelby County line. Before crossing County Road 33, the tornado uprooted and snapped several trees and at least four structures were damaged. The tornado traveled east over Highway 31 and produced significant tree damage when it reached County Road 800. The tornado continued east northeast over I-65 and then over mostly rural northern Chilton County where it uprooted and snapped numerous trees. The tornado crossed into Shelby County near Wilderness Trail.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southeast Shelby County and determined that it was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum winds near 75 mph. This tornado crossed from Chilton County into Shelby County near Wilderness Trail and tracked southeast for several miles before dissipating near Highway 145. Damage consisted of uprooted trees.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:01 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:24 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:19 UTC and running to 10:00 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 00:56 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 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.

Alabaster (EET), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Birmingham radar (KBMX), 16 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:03 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 2021 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.