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EF3 tornado in Autauga County, Alabama

Tornado April 15, 2011 · Autauga County, Alabama

EF3
Rating
9.3 mi
Path length
400 yd
Path width
3
Deaths
4
Injuries
$1.2M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 tornado touched down near the intersection of County Roads 40 and 60, just east of the Old Kingston Community in Autauga County. The tornado moved east-northeast and passed north of Posey's Crossroads and entered Boone's Chapel. Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted along the path. Numerous homes and business were significantly damaged or destroyed. One manufactured home was destroyed, causing 3 fatalities and 4 injuries. The tornado crossed Interstate 65 and lifted along County Road 85, north of the Stoney Point Community.

The wider storm

A potent storm system, which wreaked havoc across the eastern half of the United States on April 14-16, produced a significant and historic tornado outbreak across Central Alabama on April 15. Forty tornadoes, 30 of which touched down in Central Alabama, occurred in the state. At the time, this set a new record for number of tornadoes within the state from one event. This record was broken on April 27, 2011.

A surface low developed across the Central Plains on Thursday, April 14, and strengthened as it moved into the mid-Mississippi River Valley. In response, surface dew points in the middle to upper 60s surged northward into Central Alabama and deep vertical wind shear increased, providing support for tornadic supercell development. A weakening line of thunderstorms moved into northwest Central Alabama early Friday morning. The southern end of this line intensified by mid day as it encountered a more unstable airmass. South of the line, supercells formed in Mississippi and tracked eastward into west Central Alabama. The entire system pushed east across the area over the course of about twelve hours, exiting east Central Alabama in the early morning hours on Saturday, April 16. In addition to the thirty tornadoes, the storm system produced widespread straight line wind damage and numerous large hail reports.

Began near Poseys Xrds (32.5803, -86.5818).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 311717. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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