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EF2 tornado in Monroe County, Alabama

Tornado April 15, 2011 · Monroe County, Alabama

EF2
Rating
22.3 mi
Whole path
300 yd
Path width
$390K
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 touched down near Riley's Crossroads and continued northeast crossing Owens Road just east of Old Texas. On Owens Road the tornado destroyed the Bethlehem Methodist Church. The tornado continued east across Emanual Church road snapping trees in a 300 yard wide path and doing significant roof damage to at least 1 home. The tornado continued northeast into Butler County Alabama.

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 Turnbull (31.7200, -87.0950).

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 297656. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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