EF1 Tornado — Newton, Georgia

2023-01-12 · near Stewart, Newton, Georgia

Event narrative

The circulation which was the long track EF3 tornado through Griffin GA regenerated a tornado in NW Butts County after crossing out of Henry County. This particular tornado first touched West of Fincherville Rd snapping and uprooting numerous trees on both sides of the road and in the forest land to the west and east. The storm continued Northeast crossing Keys Ferry Road where much of the wind damage became intertwined with the long track tornado to the south of it. Damage was noted near Parker Rd and Hwy 36, Hwy 162 and Hwy 36 and along Hwy 36 just south of the Yellow River Bridge. The tornado paralleled Hwy 36 snapping and uprooting trees from Malcom Rd and Hwy 36 through Stewart Church Road, Heatherstone Way and the intersection of Hwy 212 and Hwy 36 where a barn was destroyed, several trees were snapped and uprooted, and a large section of roof was removed from a car wash. Severe tree damage and damage to a greenhouse and a few homes were noted along Stewart Church road. Areal survey confirms the tornado did not last long after crossing hwy 212 and lifted as it approached the Alcovy River. It should be noted that the damage from this tornado is very close to and possibly butting up against the damage area defined by the long track tornado which crossed through the Jackson Lake area. As a result, the damage area from both in some cases is nearly 2.5 miles across with swaths of more severe damage where the circulation of the actual tornado can be tracked. Combined with the severe winds and inflow winds, significant damage was noted all across this region of northern Butts, Southern Newton and western Jasper counties and much of the Jackson Lake area.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.4020, -83.8960)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1079345. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.