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EF1 tornado in Tallapoosa County, Alabama
Tornado April 15, 2011 · Tallapoosa County, Alabama
NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Elmore County → Coosa County → Tallapoosa County → Tallapoosa County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.
The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.
What the National Weather Service wrote
A tornado touched down in a wooded area 4 miles southwest of Jackson's Gap. The tornado moved to the northeast where it snapped and uprooted many trees. As the tornado crossed Highway 280, 3 homes were damaged due to fallen trees. The tornado lifted 3.1 miles north of Jackson's Gap.
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 Martin Lake North (32.8692, -85.8926).
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 311721. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.
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