EF2 tornado, Carrollton to Gordo, Alabama, April 27, 2011

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF2

Date

April 27, 2011

Touchdown

4:27 AM CDT (09:27 UTC)

Lifted

4:42 AM CDT (09:42 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

14.4 miles (23.1 km)

Path width

1,232 yards (1127 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.8 million

County

Pickens County

Touchdown point

33.301, -88.150

Lift-off point

33.444, -87.970

Record number

1104270327-01

61 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BMX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 140 mph.

• Start point of Cordova EF-4 Tornado.
• Path 1000 yds wide. Every tree mowed down.
• Beginning point of Northern Reform EF-2 Tornado.
• End point of Northern Reform EF-2 Tornado.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A powerful storm system crossed the Southeast United States on Wednesday, April 27, 2011, resulting in a large and deadly tornado outbreak. This epic event broke the record for number of tornadoes in a day for the state of Alabama, becoming the most significant tornado outbreak in the state���s history. ||Central Alabama had two rounds of severe weather that day. During the early morning hours, a Quasi-Linear Convective System quickly moved across the northern half of the National Weather Service, Birmingham county warning area. Straight line winds of 90 mph (78kts) or greater and 11 tornadoes lead to widespread damage and power outages. During the afternoon, long-lived supercell thunderstorms produced long-track, strong and violent tornadoes. Destruction and loss of life across many towns and communities was devastating. ||The hardest hit areas included Shottsville and Hackleburg, both in Marion County, where winds of 160 mph and 210 mph respectively, caused unimagineable damage. Cordova, in Walker County, was hit twice; by a tornado along the Quasi-Linear Convective System during the early morning hours and again in the afternoon by a long-track EF4 tornado. A long track tornado moved across the city of Tuscaloosa and the western suburbs of Birmingham, resulting in the complete destruction of whole neighborhoods and numerous injuries and fatalities in those heavily populated areas. The same parent supercell produced another violent tornado in east Central Alabama as it tracked across St. Clair and Calhoun Counties, resulting in additional fatalities and incredible damage to a number of neighborhoods. Another violent EF4 tornado tracked across portions of Elmore and Tallapoosa Counties, including Lake Martin, destroying numerous homes and a large section of a mobile home park. ||Most of the violent tornadoes from this day were captured on video by a number of people, including storm spotters and chasers, as well as numerous television news crews and remotely controlled web-enabled video cameras. This allowed unprecedented coverage and viewing of this historic event in real time from people worldwide.

A tornado developed along a Quasi-Linear Convective System. It touched down in central Pickens County, northwest of Carrollton, near the intersection of CR 7 and CR 26, where trees were snapped off. The tornado moved northeast and strengthened to an EF2 rating with winds of 120 mph as it approached CR 35 where it downed thousands of trees. The tornado crossed US Hwy 82 and AL Hwy 17 where it caused mostly tree damage across northwestern portions of Reform. East of AL Hwy 17, at least two outbuildings sustained roof damage along CR 3. Near the end of the tornado path, a home sustained minor wall damage and significant roof damage. The tornado lifted along CR 3, south of CR 57.

This tornado developed along a Quasi-Linear Convective System in far eastern Pickens County, 5.5 miles south southeast of Gordo and moved northeastward for 3.46 miles. It crossed into Tuscaloosa County just to the west of Holman, south of AL Hwy 140. This tornado continued for almost 19 miles in Tuscaloosa County before dissipating 2.5 miles east northeast of Samantha. The tornado touched down east of AL Hwy 63, along Grover Plate Rd where it uprooted many hardwood trees. The tornado continued to cause tree damage as it moved northeast and approached the Tuscaloosa County line. The tornado damage in Pickens County was consistent with an EF1 rating and winds of 90 mph.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

14 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:13 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:26 UTC and running to 11:20 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 06:10 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Columbus AFB radar (KGWX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:26 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

209 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 210 of them

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.