EF2 Tornado — Laurens, Georgia

2008-05-11 · near Chappells Mill, Laurens, Georgia

Event narrative

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that an EF2 tornado touched down in far northern Laurens county, just south of the Wilkinson county line. The tornado initially touched down as an EF0 tornado near the intersection of Old Macon Road and Oscar Wynn Road. The tornado quickly intensified to an EF2 tornado as it tracked almost due eastward and crossed U.S. Highway 441 at the 2700 block, about seven miles northwest of Dublin, or near the intersection of U.S. Highway 441 and Evergreen Road. Here, a double-wide mobile home was destroyed and the occupants, a man and woman in their early 50s were both killed. Their two grandchildren sustained non-life threatening injuries. Another home along Evergreen Road was also destroyed as the EF2 tornado continued on its eastward track. The tornado continued eastward and weakened back to an EF0 as it crossed the Oconee River. The tornado then once again strengthened to an EF2 as it crossed Buckeye Road in the 2100 block, approximaltely four miles north-northeast of East Dublin. EF2 tornado damage was noted to a home at 2185 Buckeye Road and EF1 tornado damage to another home at 1533 Buckeye Road. In between the destruction to the homes on Evergreen Road and those on Buckeye Road, sporadic tree and power line damage was observed, mostly consistent with an EF0 intensity rating. The tornado path length was about 15 miles. A maximum path width of 250 yards was observed at the tornado crossed U.S. Highway 441 at Evergreen Road.

All together this tornado resulted in the destruction of two mobile homes, major damage to six other site built homes, some shifted off their foundations, one home with a missing roof, and many other homes with minor roof or siding damage. Numerous sheds and outbuildings were also destroyed. Several dozen trees were either uprooted or snapped off along the path of the tornado, along with several power lines.

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 → (32.6111, -83.0806)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 101731. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.