Smithville, MS, took a direct hit from an EF5 wedge-shaped tornado on April 27, 2011. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal government site. Crews were still searching for bodies behind the towns school. Join the tornado history discussion on our. Fourteen of the towns other businesses also collapsed; only two survived mostly in one piece, a gas station and an appliance shop. Memphis, TN7777 Walnut Grove Road, OM1Memphis, TN 38120(901) 544-0399Comments? Extreme damage at a residence along Highway 25 near Smithville, with part of the foundation slab pulled up and dislodged slightly. Local Data Less than 12 hours later, another long-track tornado approached the city. There are two summaries detailing the event. They could not breathe. But just paces away, neighbors could not hold on. to near Shottsville, AL, From CR 253 south of Tomnolen is Warren County, MS to near HWY 278 northeast of New Wren, CR 378 northwest of Water Valley to CR 273 east of Oxford, CR 864 southwest of Belmont to CR 993 northeast of Belmont, Red Sulphur Road south of Counce to Blue Herron Point near Lake Pickwick, 2 miles south of Bowman, AR along CR 683 to State HWY 18 in Bowman, AR, 4.5 miles northeast of Martin, TN to 2.6 miles southwest of Lynnville, KY, Money Rd southwest of Philipp, MS to Mudline Rd Northwest of Oakland, MS, About 1/4 mile west of CR 253 to CR 254 near the Alcorn/Tippah county line, 1 mile north of Elaine, AR along HWY 44 to one mile east of HWY 61 near Lula, MS, Endville Rd in Endville, MS to CR 3 northeast of Endville, MS, Intersection of Googe St and CR 448 east of Rienzi, MS to near CR 430 northeast of Rienzi, MS, 5 miles south of Jonesboro on either side of HWY 1, 2 miles northeast of Black Oak, AR along CR 513 to 1 mile southwest of Monette, AR along CR 506, Began near the shore of Sardis Lake and ended over the lake, Near Lyles Rd south of Looxahoma, MS to just south of Looxahoma-Tyro Rd east of Looxahoma, MS, From Holmes RD north of HWY 20 in Henderson County to Pecan Tree RD in Natchez Trace State Park north of I-40, From Sweet Lips RD south of Jacks Creek to Roby Road south of HWY 100, From HWY 138 southeast of Cloverport to Teague Road near the town of Toone. This clip was shown during an episode of Weather Geeks on The Weather Channel. Which City Is the Worst for Fall Allergies This Year? Taylor Ann Boozer walks through the rubble of a demolished home May 15, 2011 in Smithville, Mississippi. Local AHPS Tornado Talk, LLC 2022, All Rights Reserved, Hazel Noe, 80 (died of injuries 6 days later), Carla Jones, 37 (died protecting her niece, nephew and son), Maxine Chism, 79 (died of injures 22 days later), RoyEstes, 63 (died of injures the next day), Allan Wideman, 49 (died of injuries 9 days later). Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Apr 25, 2011 0600 UTC Day 1 Convective Outlook, Apr 26, 2011 0600 UTC Day 1 Convective Outlook, "The Smithville, MS EF-5 Tornado April 27, 2011", "Deadly tornado destroyed town, not spirit, of tiny Smithville, Miss", "Franklin County Alabama (Hodges Area) EF-2", "Shottsville (Marion County) EF-3 Tornado April 27, 2011", "Extreme damage incidents in the 27 April 2011 tornado superoutbreak", http://www.srh.noaa.gov/meg/?n=apr2011toroutbreaksmithville, https://web.archive.org/web/20160520115254/http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/storms/apr11_tornado/, http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=303562, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmI_2iYuchc, http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/oct/23/deadly-tornado-smithville-mississippi, http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/eventdetails.jsp?id=303563, http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hun/?n=4272011_franklin_county_hodges, http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/?n=event_04272011shotsville, List of tornadoes in the 2011 Super Outbreak, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2011_Smithville,_Mississippi,_tornado&oldid=1140562379, 2011 natural disasters in the United States, Articles with dead external links from January 2023, Articles with dead external links from December 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 17:19. Probabilistic Among the more than 150 tornadoes reported on April 27 and 28, 2011, was a rare EF-5 storm. Specifically, reports that the EF5 tornado had ripped a steel drainage pipe out of the ground were proven to have been fabricated and that road crews had dug up the pipe to ensure vehicular safety as the road was previously declared unsafe.[13]. [4] Questions? This line of storms had multiple stages of evolution and moved across several states before dissipating. His best friend held the 2-year-old. On March 3, 2019, an EF4 tornado struck Lee County, Alabama, making it the first EF4 or stronger tornado in the U.S. in nearly two years. While it is common for people The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely. The tornado moved northeast through Itawamba County before it crossed into . Males had a median income of $30,294 versus $23,958 for females. Cordova, Alabama, northwest of Birmingham, was just one unfortunate example. One storm moved across Crittenden and Shelby counties between 5 and 7 pm. 27, 2011. Meteorologist and researcher Jon Davies blogged about the rarity of seeing such extreme values of shear and unstable air. Read the Late April Tornado Outbreak Summary. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration This tornado was rated EF5 and tracked for 29 miles into Noxubee County. Continuing northeast, the tornado re-intensified as it struck the rural community of Shottsville at high-end EF3 intensity, where homes and mobile homes were destroyed, hundreds of trees were snapped and debarked, and seven more people were killed. StormReady Aerial imagery taken May 4, 2011. Local [4] Another 50tornadoes touched down on this day. Sign Up for the Morning Brief - a weekday newsletter infused with your forecast, fun facts, articles and bite-sized nuggets to energize your day. Infrared satellite loop from April 27-28, 2011, showing the tornado outbreak across the South and East. The wind shear that was caused by the increasing winds aloft, and turning of the winds from south to westerly, was at rare levels for late April. Scientists attribute at least part of the 2011 Super Outbreaks notoriety to chance. Gov. Smithville is a town in Monroe County, Mississippi. Around 5:20 a.m. CDT, a tornado intensified quickly as it tracked into the city of just over 2,000 residents. Warnings, however, are issued when severe weather is imminent or already occurring. 0-3 km significant tornado parameter (STP) at 10 p.m. EDT on April 27, 2011. Before photo courtesy of Google Earth and after photo taken April 29, 2011, from NOAAs King Air Aircraft, courtesy of the National Geodetic Survey. Since 1950, 59 tornadoes have been rated EF5/F5, an average of less than one per year, according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. NWS Here is the map for the entire tornado track: Here is the map for the local portion of the tornado track: Click here to see the portion of the track in the area served by NWS Birmingham, AL. That would be an impressive outbreak alone. Hydrology SMITHVILLE - In the three-day span from April 25 to April 28, 2011, some 350 tornadoes broke out across the southern United States. Rivers/Lakes, Radar Storm motions were fast, generally in the 45 to 70 mph range, according to the NWS assessment, which left much less time to take action. Here are all of the tornado tracks across the Midsouth for the entire late April 2011 Tornado Outbreak: Here are all of the tornado tracks across the Midsouth for Monday night, April 25th: Here are all of the tornado tracks across the Midsouth for Tuesday evening, April 26th: Here are all of the tornado tracks across the Midsouth for early Wednesday morning, April 27th: Here are all of the tornado tracks across the Midsouth for Wednesday afternoon, April 27th: CURRENT HAZARDS Jesse Cox, 85, died in the house, and his wife, Nell Cox, 75, was seriously injured when an EF5 tornado swept through the town on April 27, 2011. A protruding anchor bolt from slab with base plate ripped away is shown among the rubble of a destroyed home in Smithville, Mississippi, following an EF5 tornado on April 27, 2011. Three-quarters of the town is gone. The frequency has ranged from several tornadoes rated this magnitude in a single year to multi-year periods with none. Some of the damage left behind by the most violent tornadoes stunned even experienced meteorologists. The tornado produced additional high-end EF3 damage as it continued north of Hamilton, where several mobile homes and frame homes were destroyed, including one frame home at the bottom of a ravine that was swept clean from its foundation (though lack of road access prevented close inspection of the home's construction, precluding a potential higher rating at that location). Values of this parameter were virtually off the chart, compared to a more typical severe weather scenario. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, HWY 44 near Ferguson, AR to Coahoma, MS along Old HWY 61. Shottsville Tornado - April 27, 2011. Even during the crisis, amid so many tornadoes, the National Weather Service maintained an average warning lead time of 24 minutes, allowing many peopleto escape or prepare for the disaster. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. A total of 303 tornado warnings were issued by the six most-affected National Weather Service Forecast offices on April 27, 2011, alone. Also seen almost one month later in Joplin, Missouri, this tornado crushed cars into almost unrecognizable balls, similar to what you can do with aluminum foil. The first tornado of the afternoon started in Neshoba County on the north side of Philadelphia. Spotter Training [2] An area of low pressure consolidated over Texas on April26 and traveled east while the aforementioned shortwave trough traversed the Mississippi River and Ohio River valleys. The Cox family lost its father, Jessie, to the tornado, while directly next door his sons house sat untouched, one of the few. Shrubbery along the perimeters of some homes was shredded and/or stripped as well, and debris from many of the obliterated homes was finely granulated into small pieces. Nine Ways To Tell The Difference. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.9 males. This event included multiple reports of large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes. Weather-Ready Nation According to the NWS Memphis, it was 35.1 miles. Mississippi Highway 25 traverses Smithville, connecting the town with Fulton to the north and Amory to the south. Outlooks Severe, Forecasts National Data Please note: Due to scheduled maintenance, many NCEI systems will be unavailable Wednesday, March 1st, 3:30 PM ET - 7:30 PM ET. CURRENT HAZARDS The human impacts were horrific, and the damage inconceivable. I felt the house swirling around, she said. One-hundred-year-old oak trees toppled in seconds. Some metal storage buildings and 14 mobile homes were obliterated nearby, with metal framing from some of the mobile homes thrown and twisted into pieces. We've compiled a list of the most jaw-dropping facets of this outbreak that we'll never forget. Spot Forecast Request Experiences of Smithville, Mississippi Residents with the 27 April 2011 Tornado Volume 36 Number 2 ~ December 2012 95 it is still not recommended, especially in the Southeast where tornado visibility is reduced (Ashley 2007). Turned soil from a violent EF5 tornado that destroyed portions of Neshoba, Kemper, Winston, and Noxubee counties in Mississippi on April 27, 2011. (WCBI) - It's been almost one week since an EF 4 tornado claimed the lives of 23 people in Lee County, Alabama. -An SUV was tossed one-half mile into the town's water tower, then blown another one-quarter mile. The individual tornado paths from the April 25-28, 2011, Super Outbreak added up to an almost unfathomable3,200 path miles, by far the greatest of any U.S. outbreak, according to Greg Forbes, former severe weather expert at The Weather Channel. His mother, just out of the shower, was covered in a quilt. Estimated $12 Billion In Damage. Sign Up for the Morning Brief - a weekday newsletter infused with your forecast, fun facts, articles and bite-sized nuggets to energize your day. Climate Prediction From 8 A.M. April 27th through 8 A.M. On April 28th, tornadoes took the lives of 309 people alone. A photograph from Phil Campbell, Alabama, leveled by an EF5 tornado,landed in Lenoir City, Tennessee, some 220 miles away. Radar An emergency responder amid the wreckage of a home after a tornado touched down on Wednesday in Smithville, Miss. Local Data Information accessed 15 September 2018. On Friday, some returned to their homes to salvage what they could, but many did not know where to start or what to pick up first: a shattered picture frame with a wedding photo, an artificial flower arrangement, a dirty pink teddy bear. The exchange student from Belgium who was living with the family was in the corner. Nearby granite tombstones from a cemetery were blown over in the opposite direction of the tornado's passage, and some were broken and thrown. EF5 damage to a large, well-built, anchored house in Smithvile, Mississippi. In the town, the population spread out, with 26.2% under the age of 18, 10.2% from 18 to 24, 25.2% from 25 to 44, 22.9% from 45 to 64, and 15.5% who were 65 years of age or older. [2], After producing a long-tracked EF3 tornado that passed near New Wren, the same supercell produced this tornado that began 3 miles (4.8km) west-southwest of Smithville along the TennesseeTombigbee Waterway near the Glover Wilkins Lock at 3:42p.m. CDT (2042 UTC), snapping numerous trees near the Smithville Recreation Area. Please Contact Us. We apologize for any inconvenience. . As of the census[9] of 2000, there were 882 people, 365 households, and 243 families residing in the town. The super tornado outbreak from April 25-28, 2011, resulted in two EF5 tornadoes in Mississippi (Smithville and Philadelphia), 358 tornadoes across the South and 324 deaths. This marks the first EF5 tornado in Mississippi since the Candlestick Park tornado on May 3, 1966. The average lead time for tornado warnings April 27 among those six NWS offices was found to be from 20-22 minutes. The April 25-28, 2011, Super Outbreak was one of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history. Copyright TWC Product and Technology LLC 2014, 2023. You cant question the Lord. Tornado is spotted moving through Smithville, Mississippi on Thursday as sirens wail. All NOAA. Preliminary local storm reports for April 26th. Tornado tracks, Enhanced Fujita scale ratings and county fatalities on Apr. Officially, 207 tornadoes in 15 states were counted on April 27, 2011, a record for any calendar day in the U.S. Scientists attribute at least part of the 2011 Super Outbreak's notoriety to chance. Here are all of the tornado tracks across the Midsouth. Hardship happens to you. Survey teams from the NWS field offices across the region confirmed up to 305 tornadoes. [11] But, the 1974 system caused fewer deaths and less monetary damage than its more recent counterpart. The most EF5/F5 tornadoes in a single year werein1974 when theApril 3 super outbreakspawned seven in a 24-hour period. The tornado then crossed the county line and weakened to EF2 strength, where it snapped and uprooted numerous large trees, damaged or destroyed several chicken houses, totaled a car, destroyed a mobile home, tore much of the roof off of a two-story house, and caused significant roof damage to several other homes before dissipating near the town of Hodges at 4:23p.m. CDT (2123 UTC). Overview of the Hackleburg-Harvest-Huntland AL-TN Tornadoes of April 27, 2011, Little Yazoo, MS, F4 Tornado February 21, 1971, Franklin, IN F3 Tornado October 11, 1954. Satellite There was death on either side of me., In Mississippi, Little Town Is Staggered by a Tornados Direct Hit, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/us/30smithville.html. Briefing Page Not only is the Smithville EF5 examined, but the Houston - New Wren EF3 is also examined, peering into the life of the obscure yet violent tornado. Please try another search. The site is secure. This is a before (left) and after (right) picture of the Smithville, Mississippi area. Multiple locations were found. The radar was directly in the path of this wedge tornado as it tracked into Limestone County. [11][12], In 2012, a presentation and paper, given at the 26th Conference on Severe Local Storms by Eugene W. McCaul, with the Universities Space Research Association; Kevin R. Knupp, an atmospheric science professor at the University of Alabama; Chris Darden, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service of Huntsville, Alabama; and Kevin Laws, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service of Birmingham, Alabama, stated fictional information about the tornado was being spread online. The most ferocious damage of the 2011 outbreak occurred in Alabama. The average household size 2.42 and the average family size 3.03. Approximately 24 tornadoes, possibly more, caused an estimated 326 fatalities during this tornado outbreak. And, the event as a whole killed more people than any outbreak since 1936, when 454 individuals died. Haley Barbour stopped by Smithville, which is in the northeast corner of the state, to offer assurances that more help was on the way. Mr. Hathcock, 48, and his 24-year-old son, Joshua, were hunched in a bathroom when the tornado arrived. Wireless Alerts Sorry, the location you searched for was not found. April U.S. tornado counts from 2011 through 2019. Why? These are life-saving announcements and its critical to understand their instructions. These storms produced a few tornadoes across Tallahatchie, Tishomingo, and Chickasaw, and Monroe counties during the early morning hours on the 27th. Additionally, this marks the first time since statistics have been kept that two EF5 tornadoes have been recorded on the same day in Mississippi, with the tornado in Smithville also rated as an EF5. More Observations NWS Significant April 2011 Tornado Outbreaks: . Graphical The disaster is one that many here in Mississippi can relate to.. Weather Events, LOCAL PROGRAMS Become a Patron! The first tornadoes were produced by this bow echo in Henderson, Carroll, and Weakley counties at around 12 am. Copyright TWC Product and Technology LLC 2014, 2023. Please select one of the following: Local KNQA Standard Radar (low bandwidth), Local KGWX Standard Radar (low bandwidth), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. HWY 25 southwest of Smithville, MS Mayor Gregg Kennedy said one person remained missing Saturday in the town of 900, which was mostly flattened. [2], Activity on April27 was precipitated by a 995mbar (hPa; 29.39inHg) surface low situated over Kentucky and a deep, negatively tilted (aligned northwest to southeast) trough over Arkansas and Louisiana. Doppler radar lead the way to improving severe weather nowcasting, including increasing lead times for tornadoes. Surface Observations Second, a cold front was moving across central Arkansas. 2014 paper. Preliminary local storm reports for April 25th. The April 27, 2011, Smithville, Mississippi, EF5 tornado carried a Ford Explorer roughly one-half mile before colliding it with the town's water tower. [3], On April 27, 2011, at approximately 3:45 p.m. CDT, an EF5 tornado struck the town with winds which were estimated to have peaked at 205mph (330km/h). Here are the original stats from the SPC. An earlier ending time via radar data was found at 4:21 pm CDT. SKYWARN An SUV was thrown a .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}12-mile (0.80km) into the top of the Smithville water tower, then bounced off of it, and was hurled an additional 14-mile (400m) before impacting the ground and eventually coming to rest on the opposite side of the city, where it was later found crushed into a tiny ball. * LOCATION/TIME OF EVENT: SMITHVILLE AT 344 PM CDT ON APRIL 27 2011 * BEGINNING POINT: 34.0455, -88.44497 * ENDING POINT: 34.3129, -87.9231 * RATING: EF-5 * ESTIMATED PEAK WIND: 205 MPH