EF3 Tornado — Morgan, Alabama

2016-11-29 · near Danville, Morgan, Alabama

Event narrative

The tornado first touched down along Danville Road just east of the Lawrence County line. In this area, trees were snapped and uprooted. Minor damage was noted to a shed here. The tornado then moved northeast and strengthened as it crossed the intersection of Maddox Road and Johnson Chapel Road. Here hardwood trees were snapped near the base and a home suffered significant roof and structural damage.

Along northwest Maddox Road several homes sustained significant structural damage. One home had the roof and a large section of the wall blown out. The residents of the home rode the storm out safely in the interior most hallway. Several power poles were snapped at the base. Damage here was consistent with very high end EF-2 damage.

The tornado once again crossed Danville Road causing structural damage to several buildings including a multi-story home. Significant roof uplift was noted in this location. A large industrial garage in this area was also destroyed. A convenience store nearby suffered damage, and the owner's family received warning alerts and took shelter in an interior hallway to ride out the storm.

The tornado then approached Neel School Road causing significant damage in and around the Neel Volunteer Fire Department. The roof was nearly completely taken off the fire department and large metal trusses were bent at this facility. A nearby large building was obliterated and other well built structure had its roof and supports taken off.

As the tornado moved northeast, it cross Singleton Road impacting more structures. Several homes sustained structural damage, mainly roof damage. One very large building was completely destroyed with another sustaining near collapse. The tornado then reached its maximum intensity as it crossed Boys Ranch Road on the eastern edge of Bogar Loop.

Here a home suffered complete roof loss and partial wall collapse. An anchored mobile home was obliterated with the contents thrown over 100 yards. A motor cycle repair shop that included an anchor bolted large shop building was nearly wiped clean with motorcycles thrown or rolled large distances. An SUV parked here was thrown and then rolled about 75 yards. Damage here was consistent with lower end EF-3 damage at 140 mph.

The tornado then crossed mostly rugged, hilly and rural terrain downing trees as it began to slowly wind down in intensity. The tornado then once again crossed Danville Road north of McCleskey producing widespread tree damage. Here very large hardwood trees were snapped near the based and uprooted. A home here sustained damage to the roof and also damage due to falling trees. A large shed/outbuilding here was destroyed. As the tornado crossed Herring Road it produced damage to a roof on a conventional home and also significant roof and structural damage to

a mobile home. On the northeast side of Herring Road minor tree damage was noted as the tornado finally lifted.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.4406, -87.0913)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 661844. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.