EF1 Tornado — Johnson, Georgia

2008-05-11 · near Spann, Johnson, Georgia

Event narrative

A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that the EF1 tornado, that initially touched down in extreme northern Laurens just west-southwest of Tuckers Crossroads, continued on an eastward track into Johnson county, lifting a little less than one mile northeast of Wrightsville. Dozen of mobile and site-built homes in Wrightsville sustained minor to moderate damage as a result of this tornado, some of which were destroyed. Five injuries were reported from mobile homes destroyed with this tornado. An additional indirect injury resulted when a tree fell on an individual during debris clean up. In addition, numerous trees and power lines were downed along the path of the tornado through western Johnson county. The overall tornado path length was 10 miles, of which nearly nine occurred within Johnson county. The maximum path width was estimated to be up to 1/3 mile wide.

Within Johnson county, 227 homes were damaged, 22 of which were destroyed and 67 of which sustained major damage. Six public buildings also sustained minor to moderate damage. In addition, a total of five injuries were reported as a result of this tornado, four of which occurred as a result of damaged or destroyed mobile homes. The Georgia Forestry Commission reported extensive loss to timber within Johnson county when the tornado destroyed several hundred pine trees.

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 → (32.7100, -82.8500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 101750. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.