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EF1 tornado in Washington County, Alabama

Tornado April 15, 2011 · Washington County, Alabama

EF1
Rating
5.1 mi
Whole path
200 yd
Path width
$312K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Greene County, Mississippi → Wayne County, Mississippi → Washington County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 continued east from the State Line, Mississippi area. As the tornado crossed into Washington County, Alabama, it strengthened to EF-1 intensity as it moved into the Laton Hill area along Highway 56, producing damage to several homes, outbuildings, and trees along a 200 yard wide path. One home had a chimney collapse with significant damage to the garage. Other single family homes had sections of the roofing material removed. One manufactured home in the Laton Hill area off Highway 56 and County Road 11 was reported by EMA officials to be completely destroyed.

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 Yellow Pine (31.4470, -88.4500).

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 297839. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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