Tanner is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in central southern Limestone County,

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

, United States, and is included in the

Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area The Huntsville–Decatur, AL Combined Statistical Area is the most populated sub-region of North Alabama, and is the second fastest growing region in the State of Alabama, with 659,486 living within the CSA. It is also currently the 57th largest ...

. It lies nine miles north of the city of Decatur and the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other name ...

, and four miles south of the city of

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

Education

Tanner is home to

Tanner High School Tanner High School is a K–12 school located in Tanner, Alabama. It is a part of the Limestone County School District. Athletics On December 7, 2012, the Tanner Rattlers Football team made history by winning its first 2A Championship. The Rat ...

(The Rattlers), a 2A school in the state's classification system. The school's boys' and girls' basketball teams both won state titles in 1986 and 2011 and is the only school in Alabama to do so.

History

Tanner was settled along the

Louisville and Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of t ...

in the 19th century and was originally named McDonald's Station, then Rowland. A Rowland post office was established in 1878. In 1913, the Tanner post office was established, named after Samuel Tanner who was the first mayor of nearby

Tornado history

On April 3, 1974, the area was struck by the 1974 Super Outbreak; two violent stovepipe

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

es that were both one-third of a mile in width hit the community within 30 minutes during the early nighttime hours. Both tornadoes were rated F5 on the

Fujita Scale The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is deter ...

. After the first tornado passed through the area, a second tornado surprised the rescue effort. In total, 50 were killed by those tornadoes. On April 27, 2011, during what some meteorologists call the 2011 Super Outbreak, Tanner and other surrounding communities were hit by a large EF5 tornado. The wedge tornado, which was over wide, killed 11 people in Limestone county and 72 people overall, marking it as the deadliest tornado in Alabama history. It was third F5 or EF5 tornado to strike Tanner and the surrounding communities in Limestone County.

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

system, Tanner has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.Climate Summary for Tanner, Alabama
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Notable people

* Reshard Langford, professional football

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly di ...

Gary Redus Gary Eugene Redus (born November 1, 1956) is an American former professional baseball outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Texas Range ...

, Former MLB player (

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

, Texas Rangers) *

Rocky Roberts Rocky Roberts (born Charles Roberts, Tanner, August 23, 1940 – Rome, January 13, 2005) was an American-born Italian rhythm and blues singer. Born in Alabama, Roberts served in the United States Navy and was a Navy champion boxer. He first got ...

, singer

References

Unincorporated communities in Alabama Unincorporated communities in Limestone County, Alabama Huntsville-Decatur, AL Combined Statistical Area {{Short description, Unincorporated community in Alabama, United States