EF1 Tornado — Washington, Georgia

2023-01-04 · near Kaolin, Washington, Georgia

Event narrative

The tornado caused hundreds of trees to be blown down or snapped along and just north of Fall Line Fwy on the northern side of Sandersville. The tornado touched down just to the east of the Oconee Fall Line Technical College and traversed just north of the school, downing dozens of trees before crossing Deepstep Rd, just north of Fall Line Fwy, and damaging a metal warehouse building with portions of the roof being pulled back while blowing out sliding metal doors, breaking windows, and damaging cars in the parking lot. On the west side of the building a tractor-trailer was flipped with the driver sustaining minor injuries. The tornado continued NNE up the Freeway, narrowly missing the T J Elder Middle School, but snapping or blowing down nearly 80 percent of the trees. The storm then continued NNE, crossing Sparta road and moving into neighborhoods near and along Walden Rd where several dozen trees were blown in estimated 90 mph winds. Several homes received minor damage, a shed was destroyed by a downed tree, and a second story bedroom in one home was destroyed in part to a downed tree. The tornado then dissipated quickly thereafter along Ridge road.

Wider weather episode

A strong developing system over brought moist southerly winds across the north and central Georgia, creating isolated severe thunderstorms and flash flooding on the afternoon and evening of January 3rd. The severe weather threat continued into Wednesday, January 4th, as the storm progressed eastward and brought a cold front across the area, producing isolated damaging wind gusts.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.9970, -82.8450)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1074977. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.