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Hackleburg–Phil Campbell Tornado (2011)

Tornado April 27, 2011 · Lincoln County, Tennessee

EF0
Rating
132.0 mi
Whole path
50 yd
Path width
72
Deaths
175
Injuries
$1.3B
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Marion County, Alabama → Franklin County, Alabama → Lawrence County, Alabama → Morgan County, Alabama → Limestone County, Alabama → Madison County, Alabama → Lincoln County → Franklin County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

A long track tornado continued it's path into southeast Lincoln County producing minor EF-0 damage. Damage was confined to a few trees snapped along and south of Mountain Road.

The wider storm

A powerful storm system roared across the Southeast United States on Wednesday, April 27, 2011. This storm system would be responsible for one of the largest and deadliest tornado outbreaks to ever impact much of the southeastern region.

The powerful storm system that affected the National Weather Service, Huntsville service area would actually occur in three separate waves of severe weather that day. The first occurred during the early morning hours of April 27, 2011 roughly between the hours of 2 AM and 8 AM CDT, while the second occurred during the late-morning to early afternoon period. The third and most devastating wave occurred during the afternoon hours on Wednesday, with some of the most violent and destructive tornadoes to affect the central Tennessee Valley area in recent decades.

While the majority of the analysis and survey work conducted by the National Weather Service, Huntsville and its partners have been completed, there will undoubtedly be countless research studies conducted by both academia and operational personnel in order to further evaluate and understand the complex processes associated with this near unprecedented severe weather outbreak.

Began near Elora (34.9915, -86.3650).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 301941. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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