EF1 tornado in Jackson County, Florida

This tornado started in Jackson county and continued into Houston county. The Jackson county portion of the tornado is rated as an EF1. The Houston county portion of the tornado is rated EF2 with max winds estimated at 130 mph. This tornado touched down in a swampy area, just east of Holmes Creek in northwest Jackson County. The tornado initially uprooted and snapped several softwood and hardwood trees, along Hickshill Road and in addition, it damaged an outbuilding there. The tornado continued northeast, damaging more hardwood and softwood trees along Piano Road. The first structure to be impacted by this tornado was a double-wide manufactured home on the northern side of Piano Road. Additional softwood and hardwood trees were snapped and uprooted along Danford Bay Road. Tree damage continued along Orchid Road, Damascus Church Road and Layton Road as the tornado continued to progress northeastward. An outbuilding was damaged along Orchid Road, and a single-family home suffered significant roof damage along Layton Road. The tornado then destroyed two ninety foot, seventy-year-old concrete silos. Damage was found along the entire length of Everett Road which was composed of the snapping and uprooting of trees, along with damage to an outbuilding and a mobile home succumbing to window damage. More trees were damaged along Heislar Road and Peanut Road as the tornado continued its northeastward trek. A single-family home on Peanut Road suffered significant roof damage. When the tornado reached Shiloh Church Loop, a single-family home suffered significant roof damage. The tornado continued to move northeast across Highway 2 where more softwood and hardwood trees were uprooted and snapped. Most of the damage to this point is classified as EF-1. Before the tornado crossed into Alabama, it damaged the roof of a small business on US-231. After crossing into Houston County Alabama, the tornado produced a continuous swath of damage on either side of State Line Road all the way towards the city of Cottonwood. This is also consistent of EF-1 damage. The first instance of EF-2 damage was when the tornado approached Cottonwood proper, along Ramer Loop rolling a single-wide mobile home, destroying it, despite it being well strapped. As the tornado moved through downtown Cottonwood, numerous small businesses sustained damage, ranging from blown out windows, roof damage and in one case the failure of the front-facing brick facade. Additional EF-2 damage occurred when the tornado removed the entire roof of a large two-story home. The tornado continued its northeastward jog, leaving Cottonwood proper, and commenced to destroy a two-story Moose Lodge that was composed of cinder-blocks resulting in another instance of EF-2 damage. The most significant tree damage noted on this survey occurred when the tornado paralleled Dyers Road, thus snapping numerous hardwood and softwood trees. The most significant damage along this northeastward path occurred on September Road where a double-wide home was completely destroyed, and resulted in one fatality. As the tornado continued to move northeast to across Whitaker Road and Creek Church Road, EF-1 tree damage was noted. The tornado caused mainly EF-0 damage to softwood and hardwood trees along Green Frog Road and Ed Tolar Road. One last structural damage occurred to a single-family home where it caused significant roof damage before lifting near the Chattahoochee River. In summary, while most damage was EF-1, there were instances of EF-2 damage with the max wind of 130 mph. In addition to the one fatality, there were also ten direct injuries from the tornado and an additional six indirect injuries during the response phase of the disaster, all in the Cottonwood area. Thanks to Houston County and Jackson County Emergency Management for assistance with this damage survey.

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.

Two significant tornadoes touched down in Bay county, including 1 EF3 and 1 EF2. These two tornadoes in Bay county resulted in damage to 326 buildings for a total market value loss of $20,350,311. There were 234 single family homes damaged, 46 mobile homes damaged, 22 condos damaged, 2 multi-family homes damaged, and 22 commercial buildings damaged. Of these 326 buildings, 113 sustained 5% damage, 86 sustained 15% damage, 2 sustained 20% damage, 29 sustained 30% damage, 17 sustained 35% damage, 28 sustained 45% damage, and 51 sustained 100% damage.