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EF3 tornado in Washington County, Alabama

Tornado April 15, 2011 · Washington County, Alabama

EF3
Rating
18.3 mi
Whole path
400 yd
Path width
4
Deaths
28
Injuries
$13.1M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Greene County, Mississippi → Washington 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

Tornado moved into southwest Washington county from the Leakesville area of Greene County Mississippi. The tornado tracked near County Road 8 where several mobile homes were damaged or destroyed. Three fatalities and three injuries occurred in a destroyed mobile home in Deer Park on Box Road. The tornado lifted just prior to reaching Highway 45. Extensive tree damage nearly 400 yards wide was noted in several areas along the path.

The wider storm

Numerous supercell thunderstorms developed in the late morning through the evening hours across Mississippi and Alabama. A series of long track tornadic supercell thunderstorms moved out of southeast Mississippi in the late morning, and crossed southwest Alabama in the late morning through the afternoon and evening hours. In southwest Alabama, the tornadoes missed the larger populated towns and communities, but did produce significant damage to numerous homes in rural areas. Several injuries were reported with 3 fatalities in Deer Park, Alabama (Washington County) from an EF-3 tornado during the early evening hours. Widespread damage to timber along several 200 to 600 yard-wide tornado paths resulted in significant losses to the timber industry. The Alabama Forestry Commission estimated timber losses in southwest Alabama to be near 7.3 million dollars.

Began near Escatawpa (31.1943, -88.4368).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 296786. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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