Nine years ago Monday, the Deep South experienced if not the largest tornado outbreak on record, it’s definitely in the top 2 all time.
Many of you may have seen our social media post on Monday showing The Newton County Appeal’s coverage of the Super Outbreak. Newton County wasn’t spared from the damage, as an EF-3 tornado was on the ground between Newton and Hickory.
Usually, an EF-3 tornado like that would be huge news in the Southeast. Most tornado outbreaks might have a lot of tornadoes, but only one or two that reach the “severe damage” or greater tornado strength. That four-day window, there were 37 tornadoes at least EF-3 or higher, including four EF-5s.
You might see 37 tornadoes for an entire outbreak. That wasn’t the case on April 27, 2011. That day, every index that is used to predict whether tornadoes are likely was maxed out. Some of the meteorologists said some of the indices went higher than they thought was the maximum on the scale.
It’s one of the rare times that it seemed like every storm on radar had a tornado. In all, there were 360 tornadoes in the outbreak resulting in 324 deaths.
My extended family was impacted by the storm, as my cousin’s family survived the EF-5 that tore through Phil Campbell, Ala.
On Easter Sunday, it was the first time since that day when the conditions were close to what it was on April 27, 2011. While we didn’t see the number of tornadoes we say nine years ago, we saw one of the most devastating tornadoes on record tear through Bassfield, Soso, Moss and Pachuta.
We were spared in Newton County, but I know many of us have friends and family that were affected by that tornado. My thoughts and prayers go out to them as they begin the process of cleaning up and rebuilding.
We will see more tornado outbreaks, but I hope we never see another day like April 27, 2011, in my lifetime.
Brent Maze is the publisher of the Appeal. Contact Brent at bmaze@newtoncountyappeal.com.
