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EF1 tornado in Sumter County, Georgia

Tornado April 6, 2022 · Sumter County, Georgia

EF1

Rating

3.4 mi

Whole path

100 yd

Path width

$100K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Lee County → Sumter County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Tornado touched down southwest of the intersection of New York Rd

and Larsen Rd in Lee County shortly before 330 PM. There was roof

damage to several homes along the path. The tornado also caused

considerable tree damage as it moved northeastward towards Lake

Blackshear and weakened somewhat in far southeast Sumter County

before lifting. The damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado

with winds of approximately 105 mph. The start point was based on

a combination of radar data and video of the tornado initiation

found on social media. This tornado affected both the NWS

Tallahassee and NWS Peachtree City/Atlanta forecast areas. [4/6/22: Tornado #1, County #2/2, EF-1, Lee (NWS Tallahassee)/Sumter, 2022:021].

The wider storm

A multi-day severe weather outbreak initiated with a warm moist air mass situated over Georgia as a strengthening upper level system pushed across central Georgia. With moderate instability in place with increased shear, combined to create numerous severe thunderstorms, taking the form of a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) with several strong supercells ahead of the front. The resulting front stalled across central Georgia and interacted with a weaker shortwave moving up from the Gulf of Mexico, serving as a catalyst for another day of severe weather and flash flooding on April 6th.

Began near Cobb (31.9120, -83.9670).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

22 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1022784. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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