EF2 Tornado — Jefferson, Alabama

2011-04-27 · near Cahaba Hgts, Jefferson, Alabama

Event narrative

A tornado developed along a Quasi-Linear Convective System. It touched down in south central Jefferson County where it affected the Cahaba Heights and Liberty Park communities of the Birmingham Metro area. The tornado touched down near Gresham Elementary School. It knocked down several trees along Country Ridge Pl. The tornado moved northeast and crossed US Hwy 280, near Dolly Ridge Rd where it knocked down numerous trees and damaging buildings along the highway. The tornado strengthened as it moved into Cahaba Heights where it produced damage consistent with an EF2 rating and winds of 120 mph. The most significant area of damage occurred between US Hwy 280 and Cahaba Heights Rd, near Cahaba Heights Elementary School, where numerous homes sustained significant damage from fallen trees. The tornado weakened to an EF1 rating with winds of 100 mph as it continued northeast, but still knocked down trees which resulted in damage to homes and businesses. The tornado crossed Interstate 459 south of Liberty Park knocking down dozens of trees, and continued northeast causing minor tree damage. The tornado lifted near Grants Mill Rd, 2 miles south of Interstate 459. A person was killed (indirect) during clean-up efforts.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.4367, -86.7622)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 311613. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.