EF3 Tornado — Etowah, Alabama

2014-04-28 · near Whitesboro, Etowah, Alabama

Event narrative

The tornado initially touched down just south of Brow Road, about 4.5 miles east of Sardis City, snapping and uprooting many trees. The tornado rapidly intensified as it tracked northeast. Severe damage occurred along Liberty Hill Road where a home was lifted off its block foundation and moved about 60-80 feet from its original location. Despite this, most of the exterior walls (and even a portion of the roof) remained intact. Numerous trees around this property were snapped near the base indicating very strong winds. Several manufactured homes were completely destroyed in this area as well. Two other homes sustained significant roof loss and exterior wall damage. Along Horton Gap Road, a two-story home was destroyed with just a few interior walls left standing. Much of the debris was thrown several hundred yards away from its original location and trees were ripped out of the ground and thrown. Just northeast of this location, a large wood-framed chicken house was destroyed. At these locations, the tornado was at its peak intensity with winds estimated between 135 and 155 mph. On either side of the center line track, damage was seen along Owens Road (west of the track) and Roden Road (east of the track), as a result of inflow into the storm. Structural damage along these roads resulted in loss of roof and exterior walls/side panels as well as numerous trees snapped or uprooted. The tornado crossed into Dekalb County near the intersection of Gene Burns Rd and County Road 4.

Wider weather episode

A large scale severe weather event began Saturday, April 26 and ended Wednesday, April 30th, producing several waves of severe weather from the Central Plains eastward through the Deep South, and across a significant portion of the eastern United States. Strong and violent tornadoes, very large hail, flash flooding, and damaging straight line winds accompanied this dynamic storm system. The most tornadoes occurred across the Deep South as the system moved into Mississippi and Alabama on Monday, April 28th. Supercell thunderstorms developed during the afternoon over eastern Mississippi and northwest Alabama in the warm sector well ahead of a cold front. The activity slowly spread east and southeast overnight, with this wave of severe storms ending early Tuesday morning. Storms redeveloped late Tuesday afternoon and moved into Central Alabama. A large area of rainfall across the northern Gulf Coast limited the amount of instability across the area, and storms remained below severe limits. The last wave of severe weather occurred early Wednesday morning across the south as an isolated storm produced large hail, as the system finally pulled east of the area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.1703, -86.0439)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 523242. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.