The Forgotten Outbreak: April 15, 2011

The big weather storyline for the year of 2011 in Alabama will be the Super Outbreak of April 27th, but there was another outbreak that occurred just 12 days earlier. On that day, April 15th, 29 confirmed tornadoes touched down across the Central Alabama area, with another 16 occurring in South Alabama.

A surface low developed just a day earlier across the Central Plains and deepened as it moved into the Mid-Mississippi Valley. While this was happening, vertical wind shear increased and surface dew points surged up into the mid and upper 60s into the area. As the morning of April 15th arrived, the environment was perfectly primed for development of tornadic supercells.

The first tornado watch for the area was issued just before 8:00AM, and the development of the expected supercells began just after 11:00AM across Central Mississippi. As these supercells were making their way towards Central Alabama, multiple tornadoes were spawned and created large amounts of damage.

One such twister became an EF-3 monster and wreaked havoc in the town of Leakesville, Mississippi, completely destroying 23 houses, while damaging another 75. One person lost their life in this tornado, and it caused over $11.1 million in damages. After leaving Mississippi, it crossed over into South Alabama in the southwestern part of Washington County, killing three more and injuring three as it struck a mobile home park in the community of Deer Park.

One of the large EF-3 tornadoes to strike Central Alabama on the day created a swath of damage from northeastern Greene County, just southeast of the community of Ralph, to just south of Veterans Memorial Parkway just east of Tuscaloos in south-central Tuscaloosa County. Winds with this monster were estimated at 140 MPH, mainly uprooting and snapping trees. A few homes and businesses received damage as the twister moved north of Shelton State Community College and crossed Alabama Highway 69 near Taylorville, and crossing I-20/59 near Alabama Highway 82.

Another large EF-3 tornado struck the Myrtlewood-Pinhook communities with estimated winds of 150 MPH. Several dozen single-family and mobile homes were destroyed or severely damaged. One person was killed when his mobile home was tossed several hundred feet across Alabama Highway 69. Two more people were injured as their mobile homes were rolled and tossed. Two more people were injured as the roof and several walls of their home were destroyed.

Another EF-3 tornado hit Central Alabama, this time it was in the Boones Chapel community in Autauga County. This twister was the third one to affect the same general area for the day, but this one was a killer. Three people were killed and four were seriously injured as the tornado destroyed the manufactured home they were in. In all, at least 50 homes and one business was either destroyed or significantly damaged.

Throughout the day, 45 tornado warnings and 19 severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for Central Alabama. Out of the 29 confirmed tornadoes, the total damage path length was over 244 miles, with 10 of those tornadoes having damage paths over 10 miles long. Three of the tornadoes started in Mississippi and crossed over into the area. The death toll in Central Alabama on April 15th stands at 4, with 10 more people injured.

This was the middle day of a three-day outbreak that struck from the Plains to the East Coast on April 14-16. During this event, tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. A total of 38 people lost their lives, and another 588 people were injured throughout this outbreak.

Category: ALL POSTS, Met 101/Weather History