EF1 Tornado — Effingham, Georgia

2023-06-14 · near Pineora, Effingham, Georgia

Event narrative

A National Weather Service Storm Survey Team confirmed an EF-1 tornado with an estimated maximum wind speed of 90 mph south of Tusculum, GA in Effingham County occurring from 627 PM to 635 PM. The tornado began near the intersection of Newton Road and Old Louisville Road with several trees snapped and uprooted. The tornado then tracked through the northern side of Guyton, GA with mostly tree damage, then moved southeast along the northern side of Little McCall Road where it snapped and uprooted multiple trees and removed a small amount of roof fascia and shingles from a couple of homes. The tornado then lifted before reaching Courthouse Road where no damage was observed. Paralleling the tornado track to the south was significant damage caused by straight-line winds from the rear flank downdraft, where snapped and uprooted trees were observed.

Wider weather episode

A strong mid-level shortwave rounding the base of a parent low centered across the Great Lakes region encountered an environment displaying a warm and moist airmass, leading to thunderstorm development across the Southeast United States. Thunderstorms congealed into clusters with bowing segments, eventually sweeping through the region within an environment displaying unusually strong mid-level flow, moderate to high levels of instability, strong downdraft convective available potential energy (DCAPE) and low-level backing winds supporting high levels of 0-3 KM storm relative helicity. Severe thunderstorms developed as a result, producing straight-line wind damage and a few tornadoes across southeast Georgia during late afternoon into early evening hours.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.3572, -81.4380)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1112750. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.