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EF1 tornado in Lee County, Alabama

Tornado November 16, 2011 · Lee County, Alabama

EF1
Rating
61.5 mi
Whole path
700 yd
Path width
4
Injuries
$9.5M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Macon County → Lee County → Harris County, Georgia → Talbot County, Georgia; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 700 yards (0.40 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 initially touched down in Macon County Alabama and crossed into Lee County approximately 1 mile southwest of Lee Road 3. It continued its northeastward path causing extensive tree damage across western Lee County. Dozens of houses and mobile homes on the western side of Auburn were heavily damaged due to falling trees. Several residences were destroyed. One female and one child were injured when trees fell on a mobile home. Significant damage was also noted in the Terrace Acres neighborhood, where homes were heavily damaged from falling trees. The tornado crossed the southern edge of Auburn University's campus and caused damage to the baseball facilities at Auburn High School and nearby homes. The tornado crossed interstate 85 at US highway 280 and continued moving to the northeast toward Lake Harding. Along the lake, extensive tree damage and damage to numerous homes and boathouses occurred. Several residences were destroyed or sustained complete roof loss. The tornado continued into Harris County Georgia (See November Storm Data from WFO Peachtree City).

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 Loachapoka (32.5548, -85.6294).

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 350986. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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