Thunderstorm Wind — Evans, Georgia

2022-04-05 · near Claxton, Evans, Georgia

Event narrative

The Evans County 911 Call Center reported a tree down on South Grady Street.

Wider weather episode

A severe quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) moved through southeast Georgia during the afternoon into early evening hours of April 5, 2022 as a mid-level shortwave ejected rapidly across the region in advance of a surface cold front. The environment ahead of the QLCS was favorable for severe local storms as southerly winds spread mid 60 dewpoint temperatures into a warm sector across the Southeast United States and favorable mid-level lapse rates and lifted index values helped produce mixed layer convective available potential energy (MLCAPE) as high as 1500-2000 J/kg during peak surface heating across southeast Georgia. Within the warm sector, strong shear associated with 50-70 knot low and mid-level jets beneath the left front quadrant of a 120 knot upper-level jet, 0-6 km bulk shear around 50 knots, and 0-3 km storm relative helicity in excess of 300 m2/s2 were supportive of well organized convection and potentially embedded supercell thunderstorms in a QLCS capable of producing a prolonged path of damaging winds and strong long-track tornadoes. As the QLCS swept through southeast Georgia, a few discrete supercell thunderstorms became exceptionally strong near or just ahead of the main line of thunderstorms, producing damaging winds, large hail, and a violent EF-4 tornado near Pembroke, GA that took 1 life and injured 12 others along an approximately 14.5 mile path.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.1600, -81.9100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1020758. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.