EF1 tornado in Warren County, Georgia

The tornado started near the intersection of Mayfield Rd and Riverview Farms Rd. It tracked ENE uprooting trees and picked up strength as it approached Atlanta Highway where a grove of large pines were snapped or uprooted with EF-1 intensity. The tornado crossed Old Camek Rd near the intersection of Lithonia Church Rd snapping and uprooting a number of large pine trees and causing minor structural damage as it approached the intersection of Washington HWY and Calvin Dr. The Georgia State Patrol (GSP) Aviation Division used a helicopter to pick up the trail near Camak, just east of Church Street, and moved toward the northeast. EF-0 damage to trees was seen from the helicopter extending from Camak Rd to the intersection of Wire Road and Otis Jones Road. A second NWS survey team determined the tornado strengthened again to EF-1 intensity as it approached Mesena Road and continued northeast across the county line to Foster Sprouse Road. In this area, a couple of homes had roof and facia damage, a metal work shed and outdoor kitchen were destroyed, and a swath of large and healthy pine trees were snapped and uprooted. As the tornado crossed Foster Sprouse Road, it continued to snap and uproot trees, one of which fell on a house. The tornado then weakened as it crossed Union Church Road and dissipated before reaching West Bypass.

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.