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EF1 tornado in Fayette County, Alabama

Tornado August 31, 2017 · Fayette County, Alabama

EF1

Rating

31.2 mi

Whole path

600 yd

Path width

Injuries

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 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

NWS meteorologists surveyed damage in western Fayette County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado. The tornado moved out of extreme southeast Lamar County and continued northeast across the western portions of Fayette County, with numerous trees snapped and uprooted. Just before the tornado crossed Highway 96, it produced extensive tree damage at the Fayette Country Club Golf Course. It continued northeast crossing County Road 18 and Wilkinson Road, and then to County Road 85 near Earl Housh Road. It paralleled County Road 85 for several miles, producing tree damage. It finally lifted about one mile southwest of the intersection of Highway 43 and Housh Chapel Road.

The wider storm

The remnants of Hurricane Harvey tracked northeast across Louisiana and along the Mississippi River. Feeder bands on the east side of Harvey produced four tornadoes across central Alabama.

Began near Belk (33.5419, -87.9462).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Bibb County EF1 Bibb County EF0 Bibb County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 719987. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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