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EF1 tornado in Toombs County, Georgia

Tornado May 9, 2024 · Toombs County, Georgia

EF1
Rating
14.7 mi
Whole path
250 yd
Path width

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

Continuation of tornado from Montgomery County.

As the tornado entered the city of Vidalia, trees and powerlines

were downed throughout the city, particularly south of the

downtown area in the 7th to 9th street area along Adams street.

In the downtown area, a roof off of one of the buildings along

Church street was peeled off and thrown into the parking areas

below. The tornado continued ESE crossing Center Dr, Estroff Dr,

Aimwell Rd, and through the Cambridge Ct region where EF1 damage

to trees and homes was observed all along that route. The

tornado continued eastward crossing the Vidalia airport property.

It should be noted that the last observation from the Vidalia

airport occurred 10 min prior to the tornado crossing through.

The tornado continued eastward toward the Lyons community and

across the Lyons Elementary, Middle and High school complexes.

Minor, EF0 damage was observed in and around the schools mostly

to trees, fences, and to doors on some storage buildings. The

tornado continued east crossing Hwy 1 downing a few pecan trees

and numerous limbs before dissipating as it approached hwy

280 southeast of Lyons. Additional straight line wind damage was

observed south of the path including in the community of Santa

Claus.

The wider storm

Several waves of severe thunderstorms moved through the area from the evening hours of the 8th through the early afternoon hours of the 9th. Initial convection ahead of the first line was able to tap into ample shear to produce tornadic thunderstorms in Northwest GA. This threat transitioned more into a wind event as the first line moved through the morning of the 9th. This line continued southward into the metro causing sporadic wind damage. Thunderstorms weakened as they moved south of I20, however another line of severe made its way out of AL/TN, producing further wind damage in the North. The initial line slowly moved into the southern portion of the CWA where conditions were not as worked over and shear was stronger. Storms re-strengthened, with several producing brief tornados.

Began near Vidalia (32.2190, -82.4420).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

6 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1186087. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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