EF0 Tornado — Stewart, Georgia

2022-03-09 · near Florence, Stewart, Georgia

Event narrative

A brief tornado touched down in rural Stewart County in a remote wooded area just southwest of Canyon Road where a TDS signature was observed on radar. Initial observed damage consisted of snapped tree branches and a couple of downed trees in the vicinity of Canyon Road. The tornado then impacted a hunting camp just north of Canyon Road. Metal roofing material was torn off of an overhang at this location and a couple of tree tops were twisted and tree branches were broken. The tornado then appeared to lift in a wooded area just northeast with inaccessible wooded areas beyond this point. [3/9/22: Tornado #1, County #1/1, EF-0, Stewart, 2022:003].

Wider weather episode

A warm moist airmass was in place due to a stalled boundary across portions of central Georgia. As an upper level trough pushed northeastward, surface cyclogenesis occured over southern Alabama. As the surface low deepened and moved northeastward across Georgia, the stalled boundary retreated north allowing for warm air advection to overspread warmer temps and dewpoints across central Georgia. With modest low-level shear and surface-based instability in place ahead of the approaching surface front, an isolated cyclic supercell developed in west Georgia, producing a brief tornado and warranting severe thunderstorm warnings over the area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.0618, -84.9969)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1016911. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.