Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1994

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Palm Sunday (1994) Tornado Outbreak

A map of that day's tornado tracks

Date of tornado outbreak:

March 27, 1994

Duration¹:

9 hours, 7 minutes

Maximum rated tornado²:

F4 tornado

Tornadoes caused:

Damages:

$140 million (2005 USD)

Fatalities:

Areas affected:

Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina

¹Time from first tornado to last tornado
²Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita Scale

The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1994 was the third notable tornado outbreak that occurred on Palm Sunday, and the second to take place in the southeastern United States. This one was on March 27, 1994. It was the most notable tornado event of the year.

1 Palm Sunday in Piedmont
2 Tornado table
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Palm Sunday in Piedmont

Unlike the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of April 11, 1965, this outbreak was mainly confined to the Southeastern United States. What was unusual about this outbreak was that it was at its strongest during the late morning hours. A very intense supercell thunderstorm formed 1-mile (1.6 km) east northeast of Ragland, Alabama in St. Clair County, Alabama. A tornado spun out of the storm and headed toward Piedmont. At 11:39 a.m., a tornado slammed into the Goshen United Methodist Church collapsing the roof on a congregation during Palm Sunday services. It claimed 20 lives and injured 90. The tornado was an F4 on the Fujita scale. The supercell that formed this tornado ended up tracking for 200 miles (320 km) to South Carolina.

Forty-two people were killed in the outbreak and 320 were injured. A total of 26 tornadoes ripped through Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, causing $107 million in damage. One reason for the moderately high death toll was that all of the elements that produce a tornado outbreak were missing as late as 7:00 a.m. March 27. The elements didn't really start to come together until just when the outbreak was warming up. Another reason is that some of the tornadoes ran through at least two counties in parallel paths, some of which overlapped.

[edit] Tornado table

Source: [1]

Confirmed Total	Confirmed F0	Confirmed F1	Confirmed F2	Confirmed F3	Confirmed F4	Confirmed F5
27	9	5	4	7	2	0

Sources: [2]

F#	Location	County	Time (CST)	Path length	Damage
Alabama
F4	Piedmont	St. Clair, Calhoun, Cherokee	10:53	50 miles (80 km)	22 deaths - Violent tornado began near Ragland in St. Clair County, moving rapidly NNE, striking Piedmont, the surrounding areas, and three houses of worship including the Goshen UMC Church. Many structures heavily damaged in sveral towns along the entire path.
F2	near Guntersville	Marshall	11:02	6 miles (9.7 km)	103 homes damaged just south of Guntersville. Tornado later passed near Lake Guntersville State Park.
F3	Rainsville, Sylvania	DeKalb	11:30	23 miles (37 km)	F3 tornado from the same supercell that produced the Guntersville tornado affected areas west of Ft. Payne, with several homes destroyed.
F0	Blount County	Blount	11:55	2.5 miles (4.0 km)	Brief touchdown between Birmingham and Cullman.
F0	15 miles (24 km) N of Tuscaloosa	Tuscaloosa	04:00	2 miles (3.2 km)	Near Lake Tuscaloosa, from redeveloping afternoon storms in Alabama.
F2	Pelham	Shelby	05:30	12 miles (19 km)	F2 tornado from late wave of storms in S suburbs of Birmingham. Extensive damage in Pelham and Indian Springs, with many businesses affected.
Georgia
F4	near Cartersville	Floyd, Bartow, Cherokee, Pickens	12:16	50 miles (80 km)	3 deaths - Mile-wide tornado formed SE of Rome, passed just N of Cartersville, and dissipated after moving through the community of Ball Ground.
F0	S of Chickamauga	Walker	12:55	1.5-mile (2.4 km)	Several miles S of Chattanooga.
F0	S of Chickamauga	Walker	12:55	1-mile (1.6 km)	Several miles S of Chattanooga.
F1	Rossville	Walker	01:15	1-mile (1.6 km)	Brief touchdown S of Chattanooga.
F3	N of Dahlonega to W of Tallulah Falls	Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Habersham	01:20	45 miles (72 km)	3 deaths - Large tornado, more than 1-mile (1.6 km) in width, passing through mostly rural foothills area in NE Georgia.
F0	W of Rome	Floyd	01:30	3 miles (4.8 km)	Weak tornado W of Rome, at a different location than the F4 tornado an hour earlier.
F3	Jasper	Bartow, Gordon, Cherokee, Pickens	02:00	40 miles (64 km)	9 deaths Another +1-mile (1.6 km) wide tornado, moving close to damage from previous storms. Tornado formed between Rome and Cartersville and moved through Jasper.
F3	near Tallulah Falls, GA to N of Walhalla, SC	Habersham GA, Rabun GA, Oconee SC	02:00	30 miles (48 km)	Mile-wide tornado crosses the lower Chatooga Gorge from GA into the foothills of upstate SC.
F3	N of Dahlonega to N of Cleveland	Lumpkin, White	02:25	22 miles (35 km)	3 deaths - F3 tornado moving very close to (at times crossing) the path of F3 tornado an hour earlier.
F2	near Adairsville	Bartow	02:35	2 miles (3.2 km)	Brief touchdown in area already affected by 2 previous tornadoes.
F0	W of Dahlonega	Dawson	02:45	4 miles (6.4 km)	Weak tornado W of Dahlonega. Area affected by multiple previous storms.
F3	Between Cedartown and Rome	Polk, Floyd	06:00	20 miles (32 km)	Strong late tornado from redeveloping storms; developed near the end of the Piedmont, AL tornado from earlier in the day.
F1	Between Cedartown and Rome	Dawson	06:10	10 miles (16 km)	Developed very close to previous tornado, but moved more to the north.
F1	Tallapoosa	Haralson	07:30	2 miles (3.2 km)	Brief touchdown along I-20, NW of Carrollton.
F0	Acworth	Cobb	08:10	2 miles (3.2 km)	Brief touchdown NW of Marietta in suburban Atlanta.
South Carolina
F1	S of Landrum to Chesnee	Greenville, Spartanburg	03:40	19 miles (31 km)	Passed through rural areas north of urban Greenville and Spartanburg.
F2	S of Inman SC, Chesnee SC, Shelby NC	Greenville SC, Spartanburg SC, Cleveland NC, Gaston NC	03:55	45 miles (72 km)	Substantial damage S of Boiling Springs and in the Shelby area.
F1	Spartanburg, Gaffney, Blacksburg	Greenville, Spartanburg	04:30	35 miles (56 km)	Minor damage along a long path through northern Spartanburg suburbs, and through Gaffney and Blacksburg.
F3	Lake Wylie SC, Charlotte NC	York SC, Mecklenburg NC	05:30	18 miles (29 km)	Severe damage in an under-construction/unoccupied subdivision at SW edge of Charlotte. Tornado widened as it weakened, with strongest damage produced when tornado was very narrow. Later passed just S of downtown Charlotte.
North Carolina
F0	10 m NE of Liberty	Alamance	06:40	0.5-mile (0.80 km)	Brief touchdown in sparsely populated area.
F0	Asheboro	Randolph	07:00	0.5-mile (0.80 km)	Brief touchdown at SE edge of Asheboro, with little damage.

**Outbreak death toll**
State	Total	County	County total
Alabama	22	Calhoun	1
		Cherokee	20
		St. Clair	1
Totals	22
All deaths were tornado-related

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Hamilton, David W., Yuh-Lang Lin, Ronald P. Weglarz, Michael L. Kaplan (1998). "[Jetlet Formation from Diabatic Forcing with Applications to the 1994 Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak]". Monthly Weather Review, 126 (8).
Kaplan, Michael L., Yuh-Lang Lin, David W. Hamilton, Robert A. Rozumalski (1998). "[The Numerical Simulation of an Unbalanced Jetlet and Its Role in the Palm Sunday 1994 Tornado Outbreak in Alabama and Georgia]". Monthly Weather Review, 126 (8).
Koch, Steven E., David Hamilton, Devin Kramer, Adam Langmaid (1998). "[Mesoscale Dynamics in the Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak]". Monthly Weather Review, 126 (8).
Langmaid, Adam H., Allen J. Riordan (1998). "[Surface Mesoscale Processes during the 1994 Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak]". Monthly Weather Review, 126 (8).