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There were three tornadoes that have been identified as being produced by one thunderstorm that moved across
central Alabama Wednesday evening. The first tornado affected Pickens and Tuscaloosa counties, the second affected
Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties, and the third affected St. Clair County.
Pickens/Tuscaloosa
The first of three tornadoes began in extreme eastern Pickens County (map showing track,
size = 176 kb ) just southeast of Gordo at 7:01 pm CDT. The tornado travelled on an east-northeast track moving
into Tuscaloosa County around 7:05 pm CDT. The tornado stayed in a mostly rural area through it's life span crossing
CR 21, moving just north of Lake Lurleen, crossing US 43, and dissipating at Lake Tuscaloosa just south of where
SR 69 crosses the lake. The tornado ended at 7:29 pm CDT.
There were no reported deaths and only two injuries in Tuscaloosa County.
This tornado was rated an F3 and had a path length of 17.4 miles. Path
width was estimated to be 250 yards wide.
Oak Grove Tornado, Jefferson County
The second tornado produced by the supercell thunderstorm is the most significant tornado to impact Alabama
since 1977. It first touched down in eastern Tuscaloosa County at 7:42 pm CDT just east of the Warrior River and
moved into Jefferson County at approximately 7:50 pm CDT.
Aerial surveys conducted by the National Weather Service with the help of the Alabama State Troopers Aviation
Unit and the Civil Air Patrol determined that the tornado that ripped across west Jefferson County Wednesday night,
April 8 th was an F5 tornado, the most violent tornado that occurs.
F5 tornadoes have winds in excess of 260 miles per hour. The F5
tornado is highest rating for the most violent tornado. The Fujita Scale runs from F0
for the weakest to F5 for the most intense.
The tornado track (map of tornado track, size about 236 kb) was approximately 30.6
miles long and at it's widest point was half a mile wide. After first touching down on the east side of the Warrior
River in Tuscaloosa County, the tornado crossed into Jefferson County at 7:52 pm moving just south of the town
of Scrap, just inside Jefferson County. It traveled east-northeast impacting Oak Grove, Concord, Pleasant Grove,
Edgewater, McDonald's Chapel areas before ending in Pratt City. The storm reached it's strongest intensity producing
F5 damage in the Concord area and the McDonalds Chapel/Edgewater area.
Interestingly, the tornado was on a trajectory that if it had stayed on the ground for an additional two or
three miles the high rises in downtown Birmingham would have been affected; four more miles and the Birmingham
Airport would have seen the destruction as well.
The latest death toll with this storm was 32, with more than 250 injuries. More than 1000 homes were destroyed
and more than 900 homes with significant damage. This death toll places this tornado as the seventh
deadliest tornado in Alabama, moving one ahead of a tornado which produced 31 deaths on March 21 st,
1932.
St. Clair County Tornado
In St. Clair County, the tornado began just north of Moody and continued on a east-northeast track ( map
of tornado track, size = 212 ) for approximately 14.4 miles. This tornado was rated as an F2
on the Fujita Scale. Two deaths were reported in St. Clair County, both of them in one mobile home.
This tornado began just west of US 411 around 8:56 pm CDT and almost immediately destroyed the Bethel Baptist
Church, a large portion of which was under construction. The tornado traveled through primarily rural, relatively
unpopulated areas before dissipating at 9:15 pm CDT after moving through Wattsville.
Recap of Warnings
The Storm Prediction Center had the northern half of
Alabama under a high risk of severe storms.
Tornado warnings were issued for Pickens County at 6:26 pm, for Tuscaloosa County at 7:01 pm, for Jefferson
County at 7:45 pm and for St. Clair County at 8:49 pm. Based on the initial times of tornado occurrences and the
times at which the tornadoes crossed county lines, the average advance warning time for these three tornadoes was
13 minutes. Warning lead times ranged from 34 minutes for the longest to 4 minutes for the shortest.
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Other Informational Links
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www.weather.gov 
National Weather Service Forecast Office
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