EF1 tornado in Pickens County, Alabama

A tornado developed along a Quasi-Linear Convective System and touched down in Kemper County Mississippi (See Storm Data Jackson), then tracked northeast through Noxubee County before crossing into Pickens County, southwest of Dancy. The tornado weakened to an EF1 rating as it entered Alabama, with winds of 100 mph. As the tornado moved across AL Hwy 17 near Dancy, a barn with metal siding and roofing and two small silos were destroyed. Significant tree damage was noted along CR 85. The tornado crossed the Tombigbee River and moved parallel to CR 13. The tornado crossed AL Hwy 14 south of Aliceville, damaging a farm irrigation system. The tornado continued northeast, lifting near Hamilton Jr Craft Rd, northwest of Benevola. Dozens of trees were also downed along this path. The average path width of the Alabama portion of the tornado path was 0.5 mile (880 yds).

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.