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EF3 tornado in Choctaw County, Alabama

Tornado April 27, 2011 · Choctaw County, Alabama

EF3
Rating
122.0 mi
Whole path
500 yd
Path width
7
Deaths
17
Injuries
$25.8M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Smith County, Mississippi → Jasper County, Mississippi → Clarke County, Mississippi → Choctaw County → Sumter County → Marengo County → Perry County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 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

The tornado was already on the ground as it moved out of extreme northeastern Clarke County Mississippi into northern Choctaw County Alabama approximately 4 miles to the southwest of the community of Yantley. The tornado then remained on the ground as it moved east across the entire width of extreme northern Choctaw county, before exiting the county by crossing the Tombigbee river north of the

community of Oakchia. The tornado nearly paralleled County Road 32 as it moved east across the county, producing EF-3 damage. Considerable tree damage was noted along the entire path, with many trees snapped off above ground level in a 500 yard wide path. Extensive damage to homes and other structures was also noted. A few homes had their roof taken off and exterior walls collapsed. Several manufactured homes along the path of the tornado were also completely destroyed. Property damage to homes is estimated to be near 2 million dollars, with widespread damage to timber resulting in losses near 6.6 million dollars.

The wider storm

On the afternoon and evening of 27 April 2011, a historic outbreak of large, very damaging tornadoes occurred over the southern United States. The majority of the tornadoes occurred across the northern half of Mississippi and Alabama, however along the southern edge of the severe thunderstorm complex a supercell thunderstorm formed just southeast of Jackson Mississippi and tracked eastward across northern Choctaw County Alabama before moving into portions of south central Alabama. This supercell thunderstorm produced a continuous tornado track that was nearly 123 miles long.

Began near Cyril (32.2143, -88.4327).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 296236. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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