Tenth Anniversary of the 2011 Super Tornado Outbreak

I debated starting this thread and whether anyone would actually be interested in discussing this topic, but given the historic nature of the 2011 Super Outbreak, I decided to go ahead. I hope to see others contribute to this thread. This OP will be lengthy, but I wanted to provide a synopsis of the event, as well as provide several links to videos and webpages related to the outbreak

The 2011 Super Outbreak was the largest and costliest tornado outbreak on record in the United States. Unfortunately, it was also one of the deadliest. The outbreak spanned over four days, beginning on April 25th and lasting through April 28th. Over those four days, the outbreak produced an astounding 360 tornadoes. A total of 348 people died as a result of the outbreak, and there was an estimated $10.2 billion in damage done. The outbreak produced a total of 4 EF-5 tornadoes, 11 EF-4 tornadoes, and 22 EF-3 tornadoes.

Of course, the most violent day of the entire outbreak occurred on April 27th. All 4 EF-5 tornadoes and all 11 EF-4 tornadoes produced during the outbreak occurred on that single day. 19 of the 22 EF-3 tornadoes also occurred that day. 316 of the 348 deaths would also occur that day, with 252 of those occurring in Alabama alone. Most people easily recall the EF-4 tornado that struck Tuscaloosa and Birmingham that evening, but many people know little about the 215 other tornadoes that occurred on April 27th. Many also are unaware that April 27th had two distinct, violent rounds of severe weather –a violent squall line that morning producing widespread straight line wind damage and embedded tornadoes and then the massive outbreak of tornado producing supercells that afternoon and night.

The morning squall line did major damage across much of central Mississippi and Alabama. I know that in Alabama, there were nearly 250,000 people without power following the morning storms. A NOAA weather radio transmitter in northwest Alabama (an area that would be impacted by several violent tornadoes that afternoon) was knocked out of commission by the winds. This made the process of providing warnings during the storms that afternoon much more difficult. There was hope that this morning squall line would work over the atmosphere and rob it of the energy that would be needed for the storms that afternoon. However, by 9am, there was widespread clearing and even sunshine across much of Mississippi and Alabama. At this point, everyone knew the stage was set for an outbreak of long-track, violent tornadoes that afternoon. All of the necessary parameters were simply “off the charts” and pretty much every ingredient needed for a massive tornado outbreak was in place in ample supply.

For that afternoon, the Storm Prediction Center had much of east-central Mississippi and the entire northern half of Alabama under a rare high-risk for severe weather. By 2pm that afternoon, SPC had also issued a rare PDS tornado watch for this area (PDS means that it is a “Particularly Dangerous Situation”). Soon after, the show was underway. Supercells fired across central Mississippi and west-central Alabama, and quickly began rotating and producing tornadoes. An EF-5 was soon on the ground near Philadelphia, MS. This same storm would produce an EF-4 tornado that would hit Cordova, AL later that afternoon. Numerous other tornadoes were soon on the ground. One was an EF-5 that wiped much of the town of Smithville, MS off the map. Another EF-5 would form near Hamilton, AL and move through towns/cities in AL like Hackleburg, Phil Campbell, Tanner, and Harvest. This tornado killed 72 people and was the deadliest single tornado of the entire outbreak.

More tornadoes continued. At around 3pm, a strong EF-4 tornado approaching Cullman, AL was captured on the live cameras of several news stations in Birmingham, including ABC 33/40 (where James Spann works). The ABC 33/40 towercam near Cullman continued to stream video as this tornado caused major destruction in the middle of downtown Cullman. Soon after this tornado, the supercell that had produced the Philadelphia, MS tornado crossed into Alabama producing an EF-4 tornado that would stay on the ground for a long time, impacting Cordova, AL and Blount Springs, AL. Cordova, AL had also been hit by an EF-3 tornado during those early morning storms. Just after 5pm, perhaps the most well-known tornado of the event struck Tuscaloosa, AL as a violent EF-4. This tornado would stay on the ground for nearly 81 miles, including a devasting strike to western and northern parts of the Birmingham Metro. The same supercell would produce a tornado east of Birmingham that stayed on the ground well into northern Georgia. This tornado resulted in 64 deaths. As the tornado approached Birmingham, it rained debris from Tuscaloosa across much of the metro area. In fact, I still have papers that landed in my yard that afternoon. The final EF-5 tornado of the day struck Rainsville, AL in northeast Alabama after 6:20pm, killing 25 people.

Activity continued further east throughout the night in parts of Georgia and Tennessee. A violent EF-4 struck Ringold, GA and Cleveland, TN, killing 25 people. More tornadoes would occur throughout the night, and even further east on April 28th, with tornadoes occurring all the way up into Canada.

By the morning of April 28th, 252 people were dead in Alabama, 31 were dead in Mississippi, 32 were dead in Tennessee, and 14 were dead in Georgia. Pretty much all of Alabama north of Birmingham was without power. The Tennessee Valley Authority had to shut down two power plants due to the loss of ability to transmit power. Needless to say, the destruction in many of these places was complete, and you could just feel the loss of life around you.

I am going to post numerous links to videos and webpages below. There is no way I can link every good video or page out there, so please feel free to share more.