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EF3 tornado in Walker County, Alabama

Tornado April 24, 2010 · Walker County, Alabama

EF3

Rating

29.6 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

Death

$658K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

This long tracked, strong, tornado first touched down in the Walker County city of Parrish. It then remained on the ground for 54 minutes, traversing nearly 30 miles in three counties. The vast majority of the damage was done in Walker County. In addition to Parrish, heavy damaged occurred in the cities of Cordova, Sumiton, and Empire. Between 70 and 80 homes and other buildings along the path received varying degrees of damage, and at least one home in Parrish was completely destroyed. Somewhere between 800 and 1000 trees were snapped, with a similar number uprooted. While there were no known deaths or injuries directly caused by the tornado, one 50 year old woman died (indirect) after she slipped and fell while going to a storm shelter. The tornado moved into Jefferson County near the intersection of Bankston Road and County Line Road.

The wider storm

A deepening storm system and associated cold front brought widespread severe thunderstorms, including at least 8 tornadoes, to central Alabama.

Began near Bradleytown (33.7336, -87.2864).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Fayette County EF1 Fayette County EF1 Blount County EF1 Marengo County EF0 Sumter County EF0 Hale County EF0 Marion County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 228117. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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