By Noah Whitten, Special to the Journal, with additional reporting by Patrick Dobyns, Editor
Between April 25 and 28, 2011, one of the deadliest and most destructive severe weather outbreaks in recent history struck the United States, known as the “Dixie Alley Outbreak.” States across the Eastern US were hit by a series of major tornadoes, from Texas up to New York, with the afternoon and evening of April 27 being the most active. On the EF (Enhanced Fujita) scale, which ranges from 0 to 5, eleven EF4 and four EF5 tornadoes were recorded– more in a three-day period than had ever even been recorded in any year previous. The total damage costs at the end of the super outbreak, recorded by the National Centers for Environmental Information, were estimated at $10.2 billion, the costliest tornado outbreak in U.S history.
The most destructive of the tornadoes that day was an EF4 that directly hit Tuscaloosa, Alabama: the fifth most populated city in the state and home to the University of Alabama, one of the largest colleges in the southeast. After touching down in Greene County, it made its way to the downtown area of the city with windspeeds up to 190 mph (as recorded by the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama), 16 mph more than hurricane Katrina at its peak. The Tuscaloosa tornado later made its way up I-65, all the way to Birmingham, Alabama’s largest city.
Between the two cities, the tornado was recorded to be 1.5 miles wide, was on the ground from 4:43 pm to 6:14 pm, created an 80-mile-long path of destruction, killed 64 people, and caused approximately $2.4 billion in damage. It was the single costliest tornado in history, until less than a month later, on May 22, when Joplin, Missouri got hit with an EF5 tornado. The Joplin tornado outdid the Tuscaloosa tornado by $400,000 at an estimated $2.8 billion in damage, and its death toll was nearly triple that of Tuscaloosa.
In the Dixie Alley Outbreak, there were a total of 368 tornadoes recorded by the National Weather Service between April 25 and April 28, one third of the yearly average nationwide (about 1,200 per year), with 292 of those being on April 27 alone. Among those were four EF5 tornadoes and eleven EF4’s; for context, most years only record a single EF5 scale tornado, if any are recorded at all, and the next EF5 wasn’t recorded until May of 2013, in Moore, Oklahoma.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the Super Outbreak of 2011 resulted in 324 fatalities, 316 of which were on April 27. With over 2,000 injuries and thousands of families’ lives completely changed, this outbreak gained a lot of deserved national attention. Since the super outbreak, America had not seen anything close to that amount of damage until the floods from hurricane Helene.
Tornadoes are an awesome, yet powerful and deadly force of nature that can be sources of fascination for many people even though they can often cause a great deal of damage to people’s lives and livelihoods. If there is a tornado warning or tornado emergency in your area, take it seriously and get to the safest place possible. Basements are usually the safest room in a house– lacking that, find the most central room in the house, away from any windows or exterior walls. While it won’t help if a building is directly hit, it could still protect you from many of the other dangers tornadoes can bring.
Note from the Editor
This article touched on a major climatological disaster and referenced several others that have occurred over the last few decades, one of which being the disaster caused by Hurricane Helene. When Hurricane Helene pushed its way into Southern Appalachia, many scientists and climatologists began warning that disasters such as these would become much more commonplace in the coming years. We know the reason why, and I don’t think I need to spell it out, but I will anyway.
Climate change is a very real problem that has not been addressed nearly enough on the global stage. Discussions have been had, and some major powers have implemented good measures to mitigate the amount of pollution being emitted. Despite this, the largest contributors have ignored or rejected these plans, preferring instead to let big businesses continue polluting the planet with minimal regulation. In 2020, the Trump administration withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accords and did so a second time by executive order on January 20 of this year. The United States is the second largest greenhouse-gas emitter in the world, behind China (who have remained a signatory since 2016).
The Earth is reaching a crisis point. Disasters such as the Dixie Alley outbreak, the California wildfires, Hurricane Helene, and the collapse of a critical Atlantic current, are becoming more common, with all being linked to disruptions of the climate. This isn’t something that can be denied anymore, and no one can truly say it isn’t something they are affected by. But it isn’t hopeless, either. Humanity can bounce back if we commit.
In 1987, in response to a massive hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, the global community entered into the Montreal protocol. To put it simply, if the crisis weren’t reversed, it was feared that the planet wouldn’t be habitable. Today though, thanks to efforts which have been ongoing for almost 40 years now, the hole has not only ceased expanding but has actually shrunk. It is proof that we can step back from the precipice of disaster, if we as a global community decide to.
