Remembering the April 27, 2011, tornado super outbreak

Today is the 12th anniversary of the weather day Alabama will never forget.

On April 27, 2011, Alabama was hit by at least 62 tornadoes in several waves. Those tornadoes caused catastrophic destruction in many areas and took at least 250 lives.

Veteran meteorologists have described it as a generational weather event, only rivaled in recent history by the 1974 super outbreak of tornadoes.

On April 27, 2011, Alabama was hit by not one but two rare, extremely violent EF-5 tornadoes, the strongest category on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. (Another EF-5 that tracked through Mississippi was beneath that threshold when it moved into Marion County in west Alabama, according to the National Weather Service.)

There have been 59 EF-5 (classified as F-5s prior to 2007) tornadoes on record in the U.S. as a whole since 1950, according to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center.

The last one to hit the U.S. was nearly 10 years ago in Moore, Okla.

There were four EF-5 tornadoes on April 27, 2011, and two of those were at EF-5 intensity when they affected Alabama, according to SPC data.

One of those tornadoes tracked through northwestern Alabama and was the deadliest of all the Alabama tornadoes that day — killing 72 people, according to the National Weather Service.

It is also the deadliest tornado on record in Alabama.

The tornado touched down west of Hamilton in western Alabama at 2:05 p.m. that day and left a 132-mile path that took it through parts of Marion, Franklin, Lawrence, Morgan, Limestone and Madison counties in Alabama before moving into Tennessee.

The weather service estimated its winds as high as 210 mph and said it had a path that was three-quarters of a mile wide.

The intersection of County Road 172 and Alabama Highway 43, looking to the northwest.

The tornado was so strong that it wiped well-built homes off their foundations, leaving only slabs. It tossed vehicles like they were toys and wrapped at least one around a tree.

That was not the only EF-5 to hit Alabama that day.

A second, violent, devastating and deadly tornado struck later that afternoon in DeKalb County in northeast Alabama, killing 25 people. It was also a long-track tornado that touched down northeast of Geraldine and had a path that was more than 33 miles long.

DeKalb County 2011 damage — Here’s what’s left of a school bus in Rainsville after the EF-5 tornado that hit northeast Alabama on April 27, 2011.

That tornado had winds estimated at 200 mph and was also three-quarters of a mile wide at its peak, according to the weather service.

Those were not the only deadly tornadoes that day.

Alabama was also struck by seven — seven — EF-4 tornadoes on April 27, 2011. Every single one was deadly:

* Cullman (Cullman, Morgan and Marshall counties): 2:40 p.m., 175 mph winds, six deaths.

* Cordova (Pickens, Tuscaloosa, Fayette, Walker and Blount counties): 3:40 p.m., 175 mph winds, 13 deaths, 54 injuries.

* Section-Flat Rock (Jackson County): 4:01 p.m., 190 mph winds, 12 deaths.

* Tuscaloosa-Birmingham (Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties): 4:43 p.m., 190 mph winds, 65 deaths, 1,500 injuries.

* Bridgeport (Jackson County): 5:05 p.m., 180 mph winds, 1 death.

* Argo-Shoal Creek-Ohatchee-Forney (Jefferson, St. Clair, Calhoun, Etowah and Cherokee counties): 6:28 p.m., 180 mph winds, 22 deaths, 81 injuries.

* Lake Martin (Elmore, Tallapoosa and Chambers counties): 8:12 p.m., 170 mph winds, seven deaths, 30 injuries.

Other deadly tornadoes on April 27, 2011:

* Sawyerville (Hale, Greene and Bibb counties): EF-3, seven deaths, 52 injuries.

* Shottsville (Marion County): EF-3, seven deaths, 100 injuries. (This tornado was an EF-5 in Mississippi before it moved into Alabama.)

* Pin Hook-Faunsdale (Choctaw, Sumter, Marengo, Perry counties): EF-3, seven deaths, 17 injuries.

* Hanceville-Holly Pond (Cullman County): EF-1, one death.

* Section to Shiloh (Jackson, DeKalb counties), EF-1, one death.