EF1 Tornado — Baldwin, Georgia

2023-03-26 · near Allenwood, Baldwin, Georgia

Event narrative

The tornado spun up in an area west of North Glynn St and West Charlton St, snapping and uprooting trees. The tornado quickly intensified to EF1 as it hit the Oconee Regional Medical Center. Several windows were blown out, much of the roof of the covered walkway on the west entrance was collapsed, and the roof of the atrium and the main building sustained some damage. The tornado continued east, snapping trees across a railroad track and damaging a roof of several industrial buildings to the south of MLK Jr Drive. Several homes were damaged along Walton St by fallen trees. A large advertisement sign was blown down along Columbus St as the tornado continued ENE paralleling MLK JR Drive and W. Mitchell St. Several homes along W. Mitchell, Fraleys

Alley, and N. Wilkinson St sustained EF0 and EF1 roof damage, and several homes had fallen trees on them. A small retail complex along N. Wilkinson St sustained damage to its facade and had windows blown out. The tornado crossed MLK Jr Dr at the intersection of N. Jefferson st where it hit Northside Baptist Church. One of the building's back wall was partially blown out, an HVAC unit was blown off into the parking lot, and the main building sustained roof and siding damage. The storm continued ENE, crossing Orchard Hill Road and striking the Baldwin Co EOC where part of a roof structure was blown off and several trees were downed. As it continued it moved across an industrial area with several large warehouses. Several of the warehouses had roof material blown off, and several walls were blown out, including a

large brick wall. A large trailer was picked up from the parking lot and thrown into one of the warehouses, and several 18 wheeler trailers were blown over. The tornado continued ENE, crossing the River and snapping and uprooting trees along Summit Road and Lake Laurel Road. As the tornado crossed Black Springs Road, a home sustained moderate roof damage as the carport was pulled away from the home. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted in and around that area. The tornado quickly weakened as it crossed through a wooded area crossing Champions creek. The tornado lifted shortly

after crossing Sparta Hwy where a couple trees were uprooted.

Wider weather episode

A prolonged, active weather pattern persisted across Georgia through late March, culminating in a series of disturbances that impacted the region March 25th through March 28th. In addition to numerous reports of damaging winds, hail and a few tornadoes, extreme rainfall amounts caused flash flooding over portions of the state. A swath of 4 or more inches of rain stretched from LaGrange, to Forsyth, to Augusta, with isolated amounts above 10 inches.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.0864, -83.2502)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1091669. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.