Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak (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:

Unknown

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

This article is about the Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak of 1994 in the Southeast, for the 1965 outbreak in the Midwest, see: Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak

The Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak II was the second notable tornado outbreak that occurred on Palm Sunday in the U.S. state of Alabama. This one was on March 27, 1994. It was the most notable tornado event of the year.

1 Palm Sunday in Piedmont
2 See also
3 References
4 External links and sources

[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 in Cherokee County, Alabama. A tornado spun out of the storm and headed toward Piedmont. At 11:39 a.m., a tornado slammed into the Goshen 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 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] See also

List of tornadoes and tornado outbreaks

[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).