EF3 tornado in Blount County, Alabama

The fourteenth segment of this long track tornado crossed back over the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River from eastern Cullman County (See Storm Data for Huntsville) into western Blount County southwest of Bangor. This tornado began in Pickens County, 5 miles northeast of Pickensville, and tracked through Tuscaloosa, Fayette, Walker, Cullman (See Storm Data for Huntsville), and Blount Counties, before dissipating in Marshall (See Storm Data for Huntsville) County. As the tornado moved northeast, the path width gradually increased from 0.25 mi (440 yds) to a maximum of 0.70 mi (1232 yds) in Blountsville. The tornado continued its path of significant tree damage as it crossed US Hwy 31 and moved northeast toward Blountsville, strengthening to an EF2 rating, with winds of 130 mph. As the tornado crossed US Hwy 431, multiple well built brick and slab foundation homes were damaged on Maple Drive, one of which had only interior walls left standing. Several other outbuildings were also destroyed. As the storm continued to the northeast of Blountsville, it strengthened further to an EF3 rating, with winds of 145 mph. A home near Osborne Lake, south of Blue Springs, was left with only interior walls standing. The tornado continued northeast and damaged hundreds of trees. Just northeast of US Hwy 278, a single family home was destroyed and a dump truck was thrown at least 30 ft. The tornado continued to cause significant tree damage as it neared the Marshall County line east of Nesmith Rd and south of CR 25, in northern Blount County.

A powerful storm system crossed the Southeast United States on Wednesday, April 27, 2011, resulting in a large and deadly tornado outbreak. This epic event broke the record for number of tornadoes in a day for the state of Alabama, becoming the most significant tornado outbreak in the state's history.

Central Alabama had two rounds of severe weather that day. During the early morning hours, a Quasi-Linear Convective System quickly moved across the northern half of the National Weather Service, Birmingham county warning area. Straight line winds of 90 mph (78kts) or greater and 11 tornadoes lead to widespread damage and power outages. During the afternoon, long-lived supercell thunderstorms produced long-track, strong and violent tornadoes. Destruction and loss of life across many towns and communities was devastating.

The hardest hit areas included Shottsville and Hackleburg, both in Marion County, where winds of 160 mph and 210 mph respectively, caused unimagineable damage. Cordova, in Walker County, was hit twice; by a tornado along the Quasi-Linear Convective System during the early morning hours and again in the afternoon by a long-track EF4 tornado. A long track tornado moved across the city of Tuscaloosa and the western suburbs of Birmingham, resulting in the complete destruction of whole neighborhoods and numerous injuries and fatalities in those heavily populated areas. The same parent supercell produced another violent tornado in east Central Alabama as it tracked across St. Clair and Calhoun Counties, resulting in additional fatalities and incredible damage to a number of neighborhoods. Another violent EF4 tornado tracked across portions of Elmore and Tallapoosa Counties, including Lake Martin, destroying numerous homes and a large section of a mobile home park.

Most of the violent tornadoes from this day were captured on video by a number of people, including storm spotters and chasers, as well as numerous television news crews and remotely controlled web-enabled video cameras. This allowed unprecedented coverage and viewing of this historic event in real time from people worldwide.