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EF2 tornado in Early County, Georgia

Tornado January 9, 2024 · Early County, Georgia

EF2

Rating

21.7 mi

Whole path

800 yd

Path width

$376K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Early County → Calhoun County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 800 yards (0.45 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado touched down in a heavily wooded area along Daniels road in Early County causing minor damage to trees. The tornado travelled north and intensified as it crossed agricultural fields and Clower Road where it toppled several center pivot irrigation systems. An unreinforced concrete block home was also destroyed along this road in Early county, consistent with an EF-2 rating. EF-2 damage was also noted just to the northeast along Highway 45 where two homes were badly damaged. An older two story home was shifted off its foundation several feet. Another newer brick home suffered significant roof damage. The intensity peaked at this location with an estimated maximum wind speed of 120 mph. Tree damage continued along the track to the northeast across Highway 216 and Nantze Spring Road before the tornado moved into Calhoun County. The tornado continued through wooded portions of Calhoun County, causing EF-1 consistent damage to trees. Damage was also noted to a railroad crossing gate along State Road 82. The tornado continued northeast through Calhoun County across Boggy Creek Road and Highway 37. The tornado crossed Highway 234 causing roof damage to a home before damaging a double-wide manufactured home on County Road 120. The tornado dissipated in a rural area just northeast of Highway 55. Thanks to Early and Calhoun County Emergency Management for assistance with this survey. In Early county, seven buildings were damaged for a total market loss of $326,523. This consisted of six single family homes and one mobile home.

The wider storm

A high impact severe weather event impacted the tri-state region on January 9th with supercells producing tornadoes, large hail, and damaging wind gusts, followed by a major squall line with widespread wind damage and additional tornadoes. Preceding this activity, very strong non-thunderstorm wind gusts of 40-60 mph occurred, with even a gust to 70 mph at the Albany airport. There were 14 tornadoes confirmed across the tri-state region, including 3 EF0s, 5 EF1s, 5 EF2s, and 1 EF3. This activity was driven by a deepening area of low pressure west of the region with a record strong low level jet crossing the region. The winds at 850 mb were in in the 65-80 knot range, and sufficient instability existed to support mixing some of these very strong environmental winds to the surface.

Began near Rowena (31.3785, -84.7285).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1150302. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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