STAFF REPORTS — Tomorrow will mark the one year anniversary of a historic severe weather outbreak that devastated portions of the southeast United States and rewrote the record books in the state of Alabama. In a single day, 248 Alabamians lost their lives, with 105 fatalities occurring in the Huntsville County Warning Area.  

All total, 62 tornadoes swept across Alabama on April 27 with 11 tornadoes of EF-4 intensity or greater. When it was all over the days was the second deadliest outbreak ever in the state and the fifth deadliest ever recorded in the United States. To put the extent of the damage into perspective, well over 1,000 miles of tornado tracks were observed in Alabama with over half of the state’s 67 counties experiencing tornado damage. In fact, every county in the northern one-third of the state except two (Colbert and Lamar) had at least one tornado track.

Also that day, the National Weather Service office in Huntsville issued 92 tornado warnings in support of the agencies’ primary mission to protect “life and property”. All totaled, the office had an average lead time of 17 minutes for all tornado events and an average lead time of 20 minutes for all violent (EF-4 or greater) tornadoes.