EF1 Tornado — Twiggs, Georgia

2008-05-11 · near Fitzpatrick, Twiggs, Georgia

Event narrative

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that the same thunderstorm that earlier spawned the destructive EF2 tornado that tracked across Bibb county into western Twiggs county, shortly thereafter spawned yet another EF0 to EF1 tornado across central and east central Twiggs county. The tornado, which initially touched down as an EF0 tornado just east-southeast of Fitzpatrick, briefly strengthened to an EF1 tornado as it moved east, then sporadically fluctuated between EF1 and EF0 intensity as it continued on an almost due eastward track into Wilkinson county, crossing into Wilkinson county about 4 1/3 miles southeast of Myricks Mill. The tornado touched down near the intersection of U.S. Highway 80 and Myricks Mill Road where the roof of a church was destroyed. Four other churches sustained minor damage, along with 30 homes, mostly from downed trees. Five vehicles were damaged or destroyed. Tons of trees were either uprooted or twisted throughout the area, leaving several roads blocked and closed, including parts of Interstate 16. A number of power lines were also knocked down. Maximum sustained winds of the tornado within Twiggs county were estimated to be 90 mph, with a maximum path width of 100 yards. While the overall path length of this tornado was 25 miles, just a little over five miles of the path occurred within Twiggs county.

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 → (32.7472, -83.4121)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 101590. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.