Saturday marks 13 years since one of the state’s most infamous, deadly and destructive tornado outbreaks.

On April 27, 2011, Alabama was hit by 62 tornadoes during an 18-hour stretch of horror. According to the National Weather Service an estimated 250 people were directly killed by the tornadoes in Alabama alone, with many more injured.

April 27, 2011, stands as the day with the most tornadoes in Alabama since 1950:

Towns were leveled and the landscape permanently scarred.

At least two of the tornadoes were the most intense on the Enhanced Fujita Scale — EF-5s, with winds estimated as high as 210 mph.

The first leveled parts of the towns of Hackleburg and Phil Campbell, among others, and carved a 132-mile path across north Alabama’s Marion, Franklin, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison counties before heading into Tennessee.

At least 72 lives were lost in that storm, and more than 100 injured, according to the weather service.

The other EF-5 on April 27, 2011, hit northeast Alabama’s DeKalb County. It had estimated winds of 200 mph. Twenty-five were killed in that storm.

But there were many other deadly tornadoes that day, including an EF-4 that destroyed parts of Tuscaloosa and northern Birmingham, killing 65 people and injuring 1,500.

That was one of eight — eight — EF-4 tornadoes to track across Alabama that day.

The storms on April 27, 2011, were the most dreaded long-track tornadoes. In fact of the 10 longest tornado tracks on record in Alabama, five of them happened on April 27, according to the weather service:

The 62 tornadoes left wide swaths of damage behind. According to the weather service the tornado damage paths on April 27, 2011, were almost as much as the years 2010-2018 combined:

Alabama has had so far a much quieter 2024. According to the National Weather Service there have been only 17 confirmed tornadoes so far this year, with the strongest being an EF-2 that tracked from Florida into southeast Alabama’s Houston County:

According to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center the rest of April 2024 may be quiet for Alabama, with no severe weather in the forecast for the next seven days.

May in the past has proven to be a busy month for severe weather in Alabama, but after that the state’s tornado numbers drop from June through August (unless there is a tropical storm or hurricane involved).

Alabama’s so-called secondary severe weather season begins in November. Here is a look at Alabama tornadoes by month: