Some of the most impressive things from the April 27 2011 Tornadoes
ok here's the main things to note for each tornado from the weaker side to the stronger ones
Flat Rock EF4 April 2011 - Average forward speed of around 60 mph
- had a TVS of 208.8 knots but there's more info i have to look for this one (will likely add more to this one in a edit)
Dunlap - New Harmony EF4 April 2011 - Average forward speed of around 60 mph
- Well built homes with all walls collapsed (>75%) with debris remaining on foundation
- Car and trucks mangled beyond recognition
Bridgeport EF4 April 2011 - Average forward speed of around 70 mph
- Possible Broken slab
- Concrete walkway damage
Shoal Creek - Ohatchee EF4 April 2011 - Average forward speed of around 60 mph
- Homes completely swept away. Anchored Bolts are not bent?
- Car and trucks thrown 500 meters
Ringgold EF4 April 2011 - Average forward speed of around 50 mph
- Well built Homes completely swept away.
Wren EF3+ April 2011 - Average forward speed of around 60 mph
- Ground scouring
- Low strong shrub debarked
- Homes completely swept away. (average or well built quality)
- Car and trucks thrown 1+ mile
Cullman EF4 April 2011 - Average forward speed of 52.091 mph
- Major ground scouring less then 2 feet
- Trees completely missing in some spots
Tuscaloosa EF4+ April 2011 - Average forward speed of around 55 mph
- Average built homes completely swept away with the foundation broken and or push/thrown 3+ meters
- Removal of manhole covers
- Horrible body mutilation in jarrell like style
- Gate to gate velocity of 243.6+ knots
- TVS of 249.1 knots
Barnesville EF3+ April 2011 - Average forward speed of 50.823 mph
- Low strong shrub all debarked and pulled out
- Severe Granulation of debris of 1+ inch
- Concrete walkway damage
Cordova EF4 April 2011 - Average forward speed of around 60 mph
- Homes completely swept away. Anchored Bolts are not bent.
- Underground shelter damage
- Gate to gate velocity of 212.2+ knots
- TVS of 240.2 knots
Philadelphia EF5 April 2011 - Average forward speed of around 50 mph
- Major ground scouring 2-3.9 feet deep
- Trees all debarked and snap
- Well built Homes with concrete slab completely swept away. Anchored Bolts are not bent.
- Car and trucks mangled beyond recognition
- Pavement scouring
- Metal beams twisted
- Loud roar herd 2+ miles away with violent motion
Fyffe - Rainsville - Sylvania EF5 April 2011 - Average forward speed of around 55 mph
- Major ground scouring less then 2 feet
- Trees all debarked and snap
- Homes completely swept away with the foundation broken and or push/thrown 3+ meters
- Semi truck and Buses mangled beyond recognition
- Pavement scouring
- Underground shelter damage
Hackleburg - Phil campbell - Athens EF5 April 2011 - Average forward speed of 58.965 mph
- Major ground scouring less then 2 feet
- Severe wind rowing
- Low strong shrub all debarked
- Very Well built homes with concrete slab completely swept away and Other well built homes did as well with the foundation broken and or push/thrown 3+ meters
- Car and trucks Never Found
- Severe Granulation of debris of 1+ inch
- Pavement scouring
- Metal beams twisted
- Underground shelter damage
- Removal of manhole covers
- Killed in storm shelter
- Horrible body mutilation in jarrell like style
- Gate to gate velocity of 204.5+ knots
Smithville - Hodges EF5 April 2011 - Average forward speed of 59.253 mph
- Major ground scouring less then 2 feet
- Severe wind rowing
- possible sonic boom at or more 3 seconds
- Low strong shrub gone without a trace / Trees completely missing in some spots
- Well built Brick homes with concrete slab completely swept away with the foundation broken and or push/thrown 3+ meters
- Car and trucks Never Found
- Severe Granulation of debris less then 1 inch (turned into powder sized)
- Pavement scouring
- Underground pipe ripped upwards
- Removal of manhole covers
- Train track damage
- Horrible body mutilation in jarrell like style
- Loud roar herd 2+ miles away with violent motion
Smithville and Hackleburg EF5
Note both Hackleburg and Smithville were going around 70 mph when doing there worst damage, and slowed down more near the end stage
Smithville and hackleburgs pressure drop seem to have been so extreme that any little crack or hole in homes or even are body would be pulled at , for example...
Smithville pulled a window curtain inside to outside the house from a tiny crack, the image looks weird almost like a weird clipping glitch from a video game.
people in underground storm shelters had there tear duct damage by the pressure drop, what it did to the human bodies are even more disturbing then what jarrell did, its too graphic for me to say it but i can at least say >!if you look back in past forums and stuff the reports of death were at over 140+ i think , this was from all the human body parts all over the place!< (i forget if it was in hackleburg or phil campbell or both but its for sure one of them 2 spots)
Smithville and hackleburg both broke and push/cracked more then 1 foundation.
one of the foundation in smithville was pushed at least 3 meters and had some parts completely missing, the slab was somehow bent it seems in close up image.
note this is not confirmed for this next home but , >!the whole slab might be completely gone without a trace, this isn't a mobile home it seems , all i for sure know is that all days after the damage was made a huge tree went over that area hiding the spot, and after a while when they remove the tree the slab is missing, so its hard to tell what happened there.!<
all the EF5 damage spots only lasted 2 seconds for the 201+ mph winds , im shock it was able to do that bad of the damage with that short period.
Some ground shots look like jarrell with just a huge area of trench digging and small debris parts all over the place.
The church in smithville is also some of the most insane damage there is , completely swept away, but looking at the close up image you see strange brown powder on some parts, this is apparently some brick and concrete granulated into sand size parts, under 2 seconds, the famous car hitting the water tower landed close by to this area, the trees behind the church all look like toothpicks , not only is all the bark gone , but most of the trunk seems to be missing in a weird erosion like way, some trees were completely gone without a trace.
a other home made of strong bricks, was completely swept clean, with the plumbing torn out of the foundation, there were some low strong bushes and shrubs around this house, there all gone without a trace, even hackleburg had trouble breaker the same type of bushes, you can even see them looking fine beside broken foundations, showing how much stronger smithville was.
underground sewer pipes that were possibly 18 feet deep were torn out of the ground and snap in half.
one of the trench digging from smithville can still be seen years later.
smithville appeared to have twin helical core vortices both having ef5 winds, its to note that in some simulations the only way to have speed of sound or sonic booms are from helical vortices during vortex breakdowns, it was stated that smithville had a constant sonic boom like explosions herd from people to the south.
in phil campbell a underground storm shelter had the whole concrete roof part of it removed... jarrell did the same thing in 1997.
Wren EF3
Wren EF3 was poorly survyed and nws never surveyed the worst hit spots, one home seem to have been well built and completely swept clean, a truck was thrown 1.7 miles away without touching the ground once by this tornado, its to note once this tornado roped out the smithville ef5 touched down.
Link for more info:https://www.tornadotalk.com/anchor-okolona-chapel-grove-wren-ms-ef3-tornado-april-27-2011/
Barnesville EF3
Barnesville EF3 was a similar situation to wren, while no ones were truly EF5 candidate , there were some EF4 damage spots they missed, the non official di damage however... were some of the worst that day, with low strong bushes all debarked and torn out of the ground, the vegetation damage according to tornado talk was worse then most of the EF5 that day, except for smithville that is.
(more info might be added to it later)
Link for more info:https://www.tornadotalk.com/barnesville-ga-ef3-tornado-april-28-2011-2/
Philadelphia EF5
Dug a 2 to 3 feet trench while going around 55 mph in forward speed at that spot, pavement was scoured from roads here as well. later on it threw a whole mobile home at a far distance and killed everyone in it...
The roar was her from more then 2 miles away, it only went ef5 and EF4 2 times in its life so compared to smithville , hackleburg and rainsville it didn't stay violent very long
Rainsville EF5
everyone talks about smithville, hackleburg or tuscaloosa with philadephia and cullman being talk more then this EF5.
Dispite this it broke the foundation of a home, and threw a safe far away, scoured pavement roads, and even broke a underground storm shelter.
it had the second longest non stop violent damage path, only hackleburg beats it.
it was born from the same supercell that made the philadephia ef5 and the cordova EF4.
Other Tornadoes
tim marshal stated that flat rock had a greater or similar chance of being rated EF5 then tuscaloosa...
Link for more info:https://www.tornadotalk.com/flat-rock-al-trenton-ga-ef4-tornado-april-27-2011-free/
apparently Ringgold had no reason of not being rated EF5, one home was very well built with it completely swept away, and might of had its foundation broken by the tornado.
Cullman tornado was for sure at EF5 strength near arab, deep trench's were dug, and trees were all missing.
Longest non stop EF4+ damage
heres the list of the longest non stop EF4-EF5 damage shown in google earth along with the mesurement (at least 3.2 miles long)
10+ mile long group
31.8 miles long of EF4+ by Phil campbell EF5
13.9 miles long of EF4+ by Rainsville EF5
3.2+ mile group
6.92 miles long of EF4+ by Smithville EF5
4.53 miles long of EF4+ by Tuscaloosa EF4
3.83 miles long of EF4+ by Rainsville EF5
3.54 miles long of EF4+ by Tuscaloosa EF4
3.44 miles long of EF4+ by Smithville EF5
3.35 miles long of EF4+ by Phil campbell EF5
3.31 miles long of EF4+ by Cullman EF4
3.25 miles long of EF4+ by Phil campbell EF5 (since it started in the water its hard to tell)
3.22 miles long of EF4+ by Smithville EF5
Note the longest non stop EF4+ damage by Philadelphia is under 3.2 miles
Posted Oct 18, 2023, 1:55 PM UTC