Thunderstorm Wind — St. Clair, Alabama

2011-04-27 · near Pell City, St. Clair, Alabama

Event narrative

Storm damage in and around the cities of Pell City and Riverside was found to be consistent with straight-line winds, with peak wind gusts estimated between 80 and 100 mph. There was a diffuse and intermittent, yet discernible, swath of wind damage that extended from just west of the St. Clair County Courthouse, northeastward across Pell City, Industrial Park Drive, Interstate 20, and through Riverside. Additional isolated wind damage was noted to the south and east of this main damage swath. The most significant damage across the area were several large trees that were uprooted, causing damage to homes and structures. One fatality was caused when a large oak tree was uprooted and fell on a manufactured home. Two metal buildings received direct damage from the winds; the damage on both of these buildings appears to have been associated with the failure of large doors. Dozens of homes in the area received minor roof damage as well.

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 → (33.5850, -86.2886)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 312738. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.