EF3 tornado in Houston County, Georgia

A tornado rapidly intensified as it approached the Bonaire

community of northeast Houston County during the mid afternoon

hours of Tuesday, April 5th. As the tornado went across an open

field near the Old Hawkinsville Road and Cullen Road intersection,

two large high-tension transmission (power) towers were destroyed

and another large concrete power pole was snapped near its base.

Winds between 135 and 155 mph are a typical maximum wind-load

range for these electric towers/poles, supporting the rapidly

developing, now strong (EF2+) tornado.

The tornado crossed the open field and did significant damage to

multiple homes. The first house had large sections of its roof and

second floor removed/torn away, along with numerous large trees

surrounding the property snapped near their bases. Not more than

150 yards away (to the northeast), two additional homes were hit

hard, with one completely destroyed. The damage around these areas

was consistent with EF2 to EF3 rating, with max winds approaching

160 MPH.

Less than 2 minutes later, the powerful tornado hit the south

side of Stathams Landing (neighborhood) where multiple homes had

minor to significant damage, particularly along Fairways Drive up

to Fifth Fairway. The worst of the damage in these locations

occurred at several homes along Fairways Drive were parts of the

roof and second story were destroyed, in addition to numerous

large trees snapped and uprooted around the properties.

Thankfully, the tornado appeared to have weakened slightly here,

but EF1 to low-end EF2 damage still was noted. Beyond Fifth

Fairway (street) is just open field/marsh area before Sandy Run

Creek and the county line. Little additional damage occurred here

and this drastic weakening of the tornado was supported by radar

as well. [4/5/22: Tornado #8, County #1/1, EF-3, Houston, 2022:011].

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.