EF4 Tornado — St. Clair, Alabama

2011-04-27 · near Sanie, St. Clair, Alabama

Event narrative

This tornado initially touched down in eastern Jefferson County, north northeast of Trussville and moved northeast through portions of St. Clair, Calhoun, Etowah and Cherokee Counties. The tornado then moved into Georgia, across Polk, Floyd and Bartow (See Storm Data Peachtree City) Counties. The tornado crossed into St. Clair County near Argo where it caused mostly tree damage consistent with an EF1 rating as it tracked north of Margaret. The tornado began to strengthen as it neared US Hwy 411 where it caused minor roof damage to one home. The tornado crossed US Hwy 411 north of Odenville, taking a turn to the northeast, and then moved parallel to Shoal Creek. The tornado strengthened rapidly to an EF4 with winds of 170 mph, and caused extensive damage along Shoal Creek Rd, east of CR 26. At least 6 homes were destroyed, with only small interior rooms remaining. At least one home was swept clean from the foundation. Many mobile homes were also destroyed. In addition, tree damage was extensive in this area, with every tree left mangled. At least 14 fatalities occurred along Shoal Creek Rd. The path width increased to around 1 mile as the tornado approached Neely Henry Lake and the Calhoun County line. The tornado maintained a path along Shoal Creek Rd until it crossed the lake.

This tornado was produced by a supercell thunderstorm that began in Newton County Mississippi at 13:54 pm CST, and dissipated in Macon County, North Carolina at approximately 21:18 pm CST. This supercell spawned several strong to violent tornadoes along its long path, including another violent EF4 tornado that crossed portions of Tuscaloosa and western suburbs of the Birmingham.

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 → (33.6839, -86.5234)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 314886. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.