EF2 tornado in Spalding County, Georgia

New high resolution areal imagery in concert with a reanalysis of radar data, areal surveys and ground surveys it has been determined that there were multiple tornadoes on the ground simultaneously in southwest Spalding and Northwestern Pike Counties as well as crossing tornado paths. The tornadoes were part of a larger mesocyclone which can be traced west all the way back to the Selma Alabama tornado. This particular tornado was spinning up in extreme SW Spalding County near Holonville Road and the Flint River as the EF2 tornado crossing Meriweather County into NW Pike was weaking and winding down. The particular tornado first showed a debris signature on radar in a marshy area near the flint River east of Holonville Road. Areal satellite imagery and newly acquired information from a homeowner along Huff Creek Road confirm the track continued east just north of Huff Creek Road snapping and uprooting hundreds of trees. The tornado Crossed Hancock Road as a high end EF 1 before reaching Blanton Mill Road where several outbuildings were destroyed, a home was damaged and hundredes of trees were uprooted or snapped. As the tornado coninued east toward Nunnally Road it was noted that the tornado which would become the Griffin Tornado had crossed approximately 2 minutes prior and as this tornado approached that area. Damage in the Nunnally Road area is consistent with multiple cirulations crossing this region. Also as this EF1 tornado reached the Nunnally/Bethany Road area, a strong surge in wind can be seen on radar rotating ENE around the larger mesocyclone and catching this tornado in this region. The particular tornado would be not only becoming part of that wind surge but also merge with an EF1 tornado sinking ESE out of Spalding County approximately at the Spalding/Pike county line in and around the Yarborough Mill Road region. This tornado would become the dominate circulation per radar analysis thus this track is continued ENE. As the EF1 tornado merges from the WNW, this tornado increases to max intensity of EF2 in and around the Yarborough Mill Road and Crystal Creek Drive area where several structures were severely damaged or destroyed in addition to hundreds of trees snapped and uprooted. Per damage analysis from imagery, this merging which occurred likely resulted in the increased intensification of the tornado to EF2 in this region. The tornado continued eastward toward a large rock quarry along Rover Zetella Road. The tornado snapped trees up to the Rock Quarry however, it appears that due to the size of the quarry, the tornado redeveloped on the N side of the quarry along Rover Zetalla Road and continued east before resuming a northward path. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted wet of Candler Road north across North Rover Road,Agape Avenue and Bethel Lane. Numerous homes sustained everything from minor to moderate damage in this area consistent with EF0 to EF1 winds. This particular tornado continued north toward the stronger EF3 tornado occurring simultaneously ultimately absorbing this tornado into the circulation in the area around Maloy road. Due to the scope of the damage and the width, the exact location and the damage attribution (which tornado caused which damage) becomes difficult to discern even with the imagery. As a result, the exact width is an estimate due to the challenges of determining where one tornado damage swath ended and where another one started. The one thing that can be certain is that the vorticies/tornadoes did merge near or just after the EF3 damage occurred.

A line of strong thunderstorms moved into north and central Georgia during the afternoon through the evening on Thursday, January 12th and spawned numerous tornadoes, including several that were long track and significant. Ahead of this line, a few supercells also spawned tornadoes in portions of central and eastern Georgia. Upon further examination of radar data and high resolution areal imagery, it was found that several tornadoes rotated around and within a larger vortex and caused the widespread damage in the area near Griffin GA, over 2 miles wide in some cases.

The result was that as many as 4 tornadoes were on the ground simultaneously in SW Spalding County, which were rotating around the larger circulation, merging together in several cases and crossing paths. The presence of 3 mergers was identified in the reanalysis. Additional analysis revealed that wind speeds in the EF3 storm reached

as high as 155mph or high end EF3. This confirmed a total of 14 tornadoes, including 10 which resulted from the same storm/larger mesocyclone.