EF2 Tornado — Clayton, Georgia

2008-05-11 · near Morrow, Clayton, Georgia

Event narrative

A survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that an EF2 tornado with maximum winds of 130 mph touched down in far northeast Clayton county, approximately four miles northeast of Morrow, and tracked on the ground for nearly 19 miles from northeast Clayton into northern Henry, southern Rockdale, and into western Newton county before finally lifting. Within Clayton county the tornado path was about 2.75 miles long with a maximum path width of 100 yards. Shortly after touchdown, the tornado caused extensive and significant damage within a 2.5 square mile area of the Ellenwood community. There were 185 private dwellings damaged, 53 of which were destroyed or left uninhabitable. At least 500 residents were displaced from their homes. Numerous trees and power lines were also down in the area. By far, the worst damage caused by this tornado occurred within Clayton county as the tornado weakened as it tracked further east into Henry, Rockdale, and Newton county. Despite the extensive damage, no injuries were reported.

Wider weather episode

A stationary front was draped across north Georgia early on May 10th with an active northwest flow aloft. Meanwhile...a vigorous short wave aloft was approaching the area from the southern plains. The stationary front provided the focus for two rounds of showers and thunderstorms, one early in the morning on the 10th and another in the afternoon. The activity tracked east-southeast with the upper flow aloft, mainly across north Georgia during the early morning and across central Georgia during the afternoon. An isolated strong supercell also tracked across the southern part of central Georgia during the evening. After a lull of convective activity for about four hours, intense multicell thunderstorms tracked into the area from Alabama after midnight and before dawn on the 11th. As these thunderstorms tracked across west central and central Georgia, 15 tornadoes were identified by subsequent surveys making this the most significant tornado outbreak to affect the area since the Katrina-associated tornadoes on August 29, 2005. Millions of dollars of property damage were reported as many homes were destroyed from these tornadoes from the western and southern suburbs of Atlanta southeastward across Macon, Dublin, and other counties in east central and southeast Georgia. Many of these counties were eligible for disaster assistance from the federal government.

In addition to the tornadoes and thunderstorm winds that caused extensive damage in dozens of counties across north and central Georgia during the early morning hours of May 11th, strong gradient winds developed on the back side of the strong cold front that moved through the area as low pressure intensified across the mid-Atlantic region. The strong winds combined with wet ground resulted in dozens of trees being blown down in some north Georgia counties. There were also two deaths as a result of downed trees in Barrow and Gwinnett county, all non-thunderstorm-related winds.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.6209, -84.2809)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 100694. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.