Possible Tornado in Bankhead NF, 04/20/11

[weathermansam]

Looking at the map...this trajectory would mean a Thompson Creek Trailhead area possibly toward West Bee and through Clifty and Braziel, Gum Pond... before affecting the McDougal Hunting Camp area on the other side of 33.  Owl Creek appears to have suffered some "straight line wind" damage as well.  Anyone know exactly where the damage is?




000
NOUS44 KHUN 222320
PNSHUN
ALZ001>010-016-TNZ076-096-097-231800-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HUNTSVILLE AL
620 PM CDT FRI APR 22 2011

...PRELIMINARY STORM SURVEY INFORMATION FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY...
...POSSIBLE TORNADO TRACKED ACROSS BANKHEAD NATIONAL FOREST...

A PRELIMINARY STORM SURVEY WAS CONDUCTED TODAY /FRIDAY/ BY NATIONAL
WEATHER SERVICE AND LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL IN RESPONSE
TO WIDESPREAD DAMAGE THAT OCCURRED BETWEEN 4:30 AND 5:05 AM CDT
EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING /APRIL 20/ ACROSS THE WILLIAM B. BANKHEAD
NATIONAL FOREST IN SOUTHERN LAWRENCE COUNTY ALABAMA.

PRELIMINARY FINDINGS SUGGEST THAT A TORNADO TRACKED ACROSS THE
SIPSEY WILDERNESS IN THE NORTHERN PORTION OF BANKHEAD NATIONAL
FOREST. NUMEROUS LARGE TREES WERE EITHER SNAPPED OR UPROOTED ALONG
FOREST SERVICE ROADS 208 AND 244. ADDITIONAL DAMAGE WAS FOUND ON THE
WEST SIDE OF SIPSEY WILDLIFE...ALONG FOREST SERVICE ROAD 210.

** DETAILS ON THE EXACT PATH LENGTH...PATH WIDTH AND INTENSITY OF
THIS TORNADO ARE INCONCLUSIVE AT THIS TIME DUE TO A LARGE PORTION OF
THE SIPSEY WILDERNESS BEING INACCESSIBLE ON THE GROUND. **

AN AERIAL SURVEY IS ATTEMPTING TO BE ORGANIZED TO GET A BETTER VIEW
OF THE EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE ACROSS THE WILDERNESS AREA. ONCE THIS IS
COMPLETED...MORE COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION CAN BE OBTAINED AND
RELEASED.

IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT IN ADDITION TO THIS POTENTIAL TORNADO
TRACK...STRAIGHT-LINE WIND DAMAGE LIKELY ENCOMPASSED A WIDER AREA
ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE BANKHEAD NATIONAL FOREST. SURVEY TEAMS WILL
LIKELY REVISIT THE WILDERNESS AREA TO ACCESS NEW DAMAGE EARLY NEXT
WEEK. AT THAT TIME...ADDITIONA L INFORMATION WILL BE PROVIDED.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HUNTSVILLE WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE
BANKHEAD RANGER DISTRICT FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE AND COOPERATION IN
CONDUCTING THIS STORM SURVEY.

$$

NADLER

----------------------------------------------------------------------

0505 AM     TSTM WND DMG     5 SW WREN               34.38N 87.35W
04/20/2011                   LAWRENCE           AL   PARK/FOREST SRVC

            THE NATIONAL FOREST SERVICE REPORTED NUMEROUS TREES DOWN
            ACROSS THE BANKHEAD NATIONAL FOREST. A TWO MILE WIDE
            DAMAGE PATH SPANNED WEST TO EAST ACROSS THE ENTIRE FOREST
            IN SOUTHERN LAWRENCE COUNTY. MANY OF THE TREES WERE
            SNAPPED AND TWISTED. A CAMPER TRAILER AT THE OWL CREEK
            CAMPSITE WAS STRUCK BY A TREE...COMING WITHIN INCHES OF
            AN OCCUPANT...BUT NO INUJURIES OCCURRED. TIME ESTIMATED
            BY RADAR.

[elbowman]

There are alot of trees down on Kinlock road after the pavement ends. A very large pine fell onto Kinlock falls almost exactly on the top of the falls. You can very easily see a "path" near Kinlock falls that the tornado took as it passed thru the area. From Arnold Motor way to thompson, I saw no evidence of large trees down.

Falls are flowing really nice this weekend.

Eric

[southmark]

I have a day hike planned Monday from the Thompson Trailhead along the river to the recreation area. Anyone have any info on the condition of 206 and 209?

[weathermansam]

There are alot of trees down on Kinlock road after the pavement ends. A very large pine fell onto Kinlock falls almost exactly on the top of the falls. You can very easily see a "path" near Kinlock falls that the tornado took as it passed thru the area. From Arnold Motor way to thompson, I saw no evidence of large trees down.

Falls are flowing really nice this weekend.

Eric

That's further south than reported then, that puts a damage path pretty close to the big tree...

[buttermilkmeeks]

I wish I had seen that NWS report Friday evening...

Thompson Creek trail has been devastated from just south of White Oak Hollow all the way to the tip of Ship Rock.

I led a small group hike along there today and it looked like a bomb had gone off. It took us over two hours to hike from the trailhead down to the tip of the Ship Rock. It is going to take years to get that section of the trail in decent shape - hundreds of trees were down and approximately a hundred of those were large trees.  We literally climbed piles of trees or bushwacked up to the bluff line and down to the creek for two hours until we rounded Ship Rock.

And almost all of these trees have fallen directly on the Thompson trail. Lots of trees have fallen into and across Thompson Creek as well - we talked to a party of paddlers on the southern side of Ship Rock that had to haul their canoes up and out of the creek many times before they made it to Sipsey proper.

We had planned to hike all the way to the Recreation Area today - but decided to loop back via the White Oak Hollow / Outlaw trail and make a visit to the Big Tree instead of taking the chance that the Sipsey River trail was as bad as the Thompson trail.

East Bee branch has always been a bit rough in spots - but it is even worse now (though still nowhere near as bad as the Thompson Trail). There are a lot of trees down around the Big Tree - enough that we could not even see the base of the trunk from all of the downfall (not tree-fall per se at its base - just tons of leaves and limbs).

The Big Tree appeared undamaged - aside from six foot "light" scrape from a falling limb or tree top near its base.

There were several dozen hikers out and about today - almost all of whom were taking the White Oak Hollow trail (the ribbon demon has marked this trail so that a blind man in the dark could feel his way along the path. Many stretches had at three ribbons within a ten-foot span.)

There was a party of about thirty senior citizens at the tree (honest - most were well over sixty-five) that made their initial approach via the White Oak Hollow Trail. More folks were still headed that way as we hiked out around 3:30 pm.  It took us nearly two hours to get from the Big Tree back to the Thompson trailhead. There is also some tree-fall near the top of the ridge where the White Oak trail begins to follow the wash down into the West Bee Branch

I talked to a pair of hikers that made their way to the Bee Branch via the Sipsey River trail from the Recreation Area and they said the first four miles were clear - but they also reported that the last two miles were rough with lots of tree-fall to scramble through.

On top of all this, we kept hearing tales of a lost and injured hiker that several folks had bumped into during the day. We also heard that his family (or friends) were out trying to track him down. We ran across his family (or friends) during our descent into White Oak Hollow on our way back to the Thompson trailhead and we then ran across a small party wearing Lawrence County EMA shirts. There were some Lawrence County Sheriff Deputies waiting at the trailhead.

As we drove out along FS208 and turned on to FS210 a Forestry Service SUV was heading out to the trailhead as well…

Some members of our group took photographs of the devastation and another member is planning on checking the GPS coordinates of the tornado's path through NOAA. Hopefully, he'll post those coordinates in this thread.

[weathermansam]

I had planned on taking some Sipsey newbies this route for a camping trip in about 3 weeks.  I guess next weekend I'll drop down and scout out the damage.  I hate this about that area losing so many trees, there were a bunch of arborglyphs on that route.  I'm interested in seeing the damage to the big tree as well.  I'll keep checking the Huntsville NWS's site to see if they update anything. 

[weathermansam]

There are alot of trees down on Kinlock road after the pavement ends. A very large pine fell onto Kinlock falls almost exactly on the top of the falls. You can very easily see a "path" near Kinlock falls that the tornado took as it passed thru the area. From Arnold Motor way to thompson, I saw no evidence of large trees down.

Falls are flowing really nice this weekend.

Eric

Is kinlock rd passable?

[buttermilkmeeks]

It was as of yesterday morning - we saw a contractor crew cleaning up the last remnants of fallen trees about half-way between the Kinlock Monument/Marker and the Church...

FS208 appears to have had no downed trees.

[Uncle Wayne]

That same storm came on across my property and ripped off about a 1/4 of my barn roof, twisted the top out of two giant water oaks and did considerable damage to a Box Elder in my yard.

Our property in the forest along the Ridge road was not touched.

[squidbilly]

Thanks for the detailed damage report, ButtermilkMeeks. I didn't realize a tornado had passed through the area until Saturday morning when I saw the damage along Al.33 on the way to the work center. We participated in the Wildsouth Cranal Road clean-up. Like Sam, I hope we have not lost any arborglyphs. There are so many I have not seen yet. That ribbon demon is starting to irritate me, although I wonder if the Whiteoak flagging was there for the seniors you saw at the big tree. After the clean-up I was talking to a forest ranger about this very issue. He said they don't fine people for leaving markers as long as they remove them. ( Yeah, I know, how often does that happen?)

[Roscoe]

Well, it's a good thing we got the crosscut saws sharpened. I was at the cleanup also squidbilly. What section were you cleaning up?

[buttermilkmeeks]

Anyone heard an update on the lost hiker?

[squidbilly]

That same storm came on across my property and ripped off about a 1/4 of my barn roof, twisted the top out of two giant water oaks and did considerable damage to a Box Elder in my yard.

Our property in the forest along the Ridge road was not touched.

Sorry to hear about that Uncle Wayne. The roof can be replaced but the old trees are a different matter. I hope they survive. I lost an ancient old oak a few years ago to lightning. I won't live nearly long enough to see it replaced.

[squidbilly]

Well, it's a good thing we got the crosscut saws sharpened. I was at the cleanup also squidbilly. What section were you cleaning up?

I built that tire "monument" on section ten.  Were you in one of the trucks?

[Roscoe]

yeah I was in the blue truck

[squidbilly]

Not only did The Big Tree withstand a tornado, but it's counterpart in north Georgia, The Gennett Poplar was nearly hit a few weeks ago by storms moving through it's area. 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/5rVKkcx9_Mc&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/5rVKkcx9_Mc&rel=0</a>
This video was taken on the Pinhoti just south of the Gennett Poplar.

[kimism72]

Brandon,

I shared this report on Facebook after Sam Calhoun sent it to me. Thanks for posting the report. Looks like there is not much that can be done about it since it is a wilderness area. There is tremendous support for a clean up effort but evidently, we are not supposed to clear the trail. I stand humbly in mother nature's face as she does have the upper hand in all!

Peace,

Kim

[buttermilkmeeks]

Thanks for sharing it Kim - we should get the word out as far as possible so that other hikers are aware of the situation. Perhaps the forestry service will issue some permits to clear portions of the trail once they have made their official assessment - which will probably take some time.

[Uncle Wayne]

I "think" WildSouth has taken over the responsibility of keeping trail 206 clear as  well as trail 203.  They'll spring into action as soon as possible, just wait and see.

[weathermansam]

There's report of another possible tornado from these morning storms near the Sipsey Wilderness...

...scratch that...I think the report meant to say Bankhead NF, and at that, the section down by Smith Lake given the direction of the storm...

[bramblypines]

I ran in this morning between storms to check the Sipsey, about 10 am. I didn't see any
major damage like the April 20th storm. When I was leaving around 11:30 2 guys showed
up to put in and go down the river. I ran the river a couple of weeks ago when it was around
600 cfs these guys started when it was around 800-900  and going up last I looked it was
at 1500 cfs and still going up.

[angrysparrow]

I ran the river a couple of weeks ago when it was around
600 cfs these guys started when it was around 800-900  and going up last I looked it was
at 1500 cfs and still going up.

I ran it at ~3000 cfs a year or so ago.  It's fun if you know what you're doing.

If they lauched today, they probably knew the scenario.

[Bear]

Looks like there is not much that can be done about it since it is a wilderness area. There is tremendous support for a clean up effort but evidently, we are not supposed to clear the trail.

Sorry for bringing up such an old topic, but I haven't logged in all summer due to Real Life.

I just wanted to say that this is one issue which, while I do understand and mostly agree with it, it still is a bit of a pain.

I took my dad and younger brother out in March and we did a two day loop.  We spend most of our time climbing over fallen trees that had blocked the trail.  Although Sipsey is very beautiful, I think next time we'll be going somewhere else with fewer blockages.  It gets really old, really fast to have to interrupt my pace to find a way around a fallen log.  I hate to leave the trail, because I am well aware of the damage that does, but a broken bone or other major injury just isn't worth it.

[weathermansam]

Sorry for bringing up such an old topic, but I haven't logged in all summer due to Real Life.

I just wanted to say that this is one issue which, while I do understand and mostly agree with it, it still is a bit of a pain.

I took my dad and younger brother out in March and we did a two day loop.  We spend most of our time climbing over fallen trees that had blocked the trail.  Although Sipsey is very beautiful, I think next time we'll be going somewhere else with fewer blockages.  It gets really old, really fast to have to interrupt my pace to find a way around a fallen log.  I hate to leave the trail, because I am well aware of the damage that does, but a broken bone or other major injury just isn't worth it.

I'm hoping the white oak hollow route isn't too bad, it's the one section I haven't been on since early spring.  It can't be any worse than thompson creek.  I hope work begins soon on clearing the trails.