EF1 Tornado — Wilcox, Georgia

2023-01-12 · near Abbeville, Wilcox, Georgia

Event narrative

This tornado quickly touched down near the intersection of US Hwy 129 and Primrose Ln, where it caused extensive damage to a homestead along the road. The damage included several large trees uprooted, a silo moved and twisted off it's original location

straining several metal bracers, a barn and 2 sheds that were destroyed, and moderate structural damage to a home with several structural pillars and columns displaced. The tornado then crossed east of the highway and moved into an inaccessible area near the Ocmulgee River. Minor damage was found on the east side of the Ocmulgee River, but any continued path was inconclusive.

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 → (32.0660, -83.3810)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1079348. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.