Tornadoes · United States · Alabama · 2021

EF0 tornado, Claud to Santuck, Alabama, November 11, 2021

From Claud to Santuck, this EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Elmore County on November 11, 2021, touching down at 3:03 PM CST and reaching 270 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
November 11, 2021
Touchdown
3:03 PM CST (21:03 UTC)
Lifted
3:04 PM CST (21:04 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
270 yards (247 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Elmore County
Touchdown point
32.617, -86.086
Lift-off point
32.621, -86.082
Record number
2111111503-01

The damage survey

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

A line of thunderstorms ahead of a cold front produced a weak tornado in Elmore County during the afternoon hours.

National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in Elmore County and determined that it was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum winds near 70 mph. An isolated, low-topped supercell produced a weak, brief tornado along Pleasant Hill Road about 8.9 miles northeast of Wetumpka. About a dozen large trees were uprooted sporadically along the path in a convergent pattern near the center of the path, with weaker tree limb damage on the outskirts of the path. A tree fell on a barn. One manufactured home had a roof partially removed with minor damage to a deck and skirting.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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 air that afternoon

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.

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 12:00Z

9.1 hours before the tornado, 90 km from the path. November 11, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 2021-11-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -87552, lifted condensation level 1054 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Birmingham, AL at 12:00Z on 2021-11-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 215 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-87552 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1054 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
215 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
208 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Birmingham, AL (KBMX), 00:00Z

2.9 hours after it, 90 km from the path. November 12, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 2021-11-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -19584, lifted condensation level 727 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Birmingham, AL at 00:00Z on 2021-11-12The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -92 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-19584 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
727 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-92 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-66 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Maxwell AFB radar (KMXX), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:00 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:00 UTCTORNADO3 Nnw ClaudElmore, ALPOTENTIAL TORNADO DAMAGE ALONG PLEASANT HILL RD IN ELMORE COUNTY. A FEW TREES WERE REPORTED UPROOTED, WITH A FEW SMALLER TREES SNAPPED. MINOR DAMAGE TO A MOBILE HOME WAS ALSO REPORTED.
21:02 UTCTORNADO3 Ese SantuckElmore, ALCORRECTS PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT FROM 3 NNW CLAUD. A LOW TOPPED SUPERCELL PRODUCED A BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO ALONG PLEASANT HILL ROAD ABOUT 8.9 MILES NORTHEAST OF WETUMPKA. ABOUT A DOZEN LARGE TREES WERE UPROOTED SPORADICALLY
21:03 UTCTORNADO3 Ese SantuckElmore, ALCORRECTS PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT FROM 3 ESE CLAUD FOR TIME. A LOW TOPPED SUPERCELL PRODUCED A BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO ALONG PLEASANT HILL ROAD ABOUT 8.9 MILES NORTHEAST OF WETUMPKA. ABOUT A DOZEN LARGE TREES WERE UPROOTED SPO

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 11, 2021

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 1112:40 AM CSTEF0Harrison, TX0.650$1,000
November 1112:51 AM CSTEF0Harrison, TX2.650
November 111:02 AM CSTEF1Caddo Parish, LA0.2100$90,000
November 112:06 AM CSTEF0Bienville Parish, LA1.240$5,000

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.