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EF1 tornado in Montgomery County, Alabama

Tornado November 16, 2011 · Montgomery County, Alabama

EF1
Rating
0.9 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
$500K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado touched down near the Alabama Christian Academy Football field in Montgomery, where a large pine tree snapped and collapsed a section of bleachers. The scorebored on the nearby Faulkner University baseball field also collapsed. The tornado continued northeastward crossing Wares Ferry Road, where several homes sustained minor roof damage. Farther to the northeast, the most widespread damage occurred at the Sunshine Valley Mobile Home Park, were numerous mobile homes sustained minor to moderate roof damage or the underpinning was blown out. Small outbuildings and sheds were also blown over in this area, and trees were snapped or uprooted. One large pine tree was uprooted and crushed a vehicle. From there the tornado crossed US Highway 231 and struck Adam's Motorsports, were a section of metal roof was peeled back. The tornado lifted just northeast of Adam's Motorsports.

The wider storm

Several waves of thunderstorms affected Central Alabama on Wednesday, November 16. The airmass ahead of a slow-moving, strong cold front became increasingly moist and unstable during the early morning hours. Rotating supercells within several broken lines of thunderstorms began producing damage just after sunrise in west Central Alabama. Isolated damage continued across the southern portion of the area through the early afternoon. In addition to damage across portions of Alabama, this storm system produced damage from Eastern Texas to the Atlantic Coast.

Began near Chisholm (32.3867, -86.2184).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

3 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 350977. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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