TornadoLookup

Home / Alabama / Franklin

EF2 tornado in Franklin County, Alabama

Tornado November 29, 2016 · Franklin County, Alabama

EF2
Rating
10.9 mi
Whole path
100 yd
Path width
3
Injuries

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Franklin County → Colbert County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 supercell crossed over northern Franklin County Alabama and a tornado developed and touched down near Lost Creek Road on the northeast side of the Cedar Creek Reservoir. When it touched down, a number of hardwood trees, softwood trees, and power poles were snapped and a well built single family home lost a significant amount of the roofing material and the one occupant of the home was injured when the tornado occurred. The home also shifted with cracks noted on the concrete under-girding of the home. This is where the tornado was at its strongest (EF-2). The tornado quickly moved northeast snapping 10-20 trees and power poles as it moved towards the Frankfort Community along County Road 88.

The wider storm

A tornado outbreak occurred during the evening hours of the 29th into the early morning hours of the 30th. A very mild and unstable air mass was in place along with a strong southwesterly upper level jet. These ingredients combined with a cold front and pre-frontal trough sweeping from west to east across the area sparked scattered supercell thunderstorms during the evening, a few of which were tornadic. This was followed by a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) that occurred with the trough, which also was responsible for severe weather. Beneficial rainfall occurred with this system with 2-5 inches reported. Some of the rainfall fell fast enough to produce brief flash flooding in the Florence area during the evening.

Began near Pleasant Grove (34.5415, -87.9038).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 661842. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.